XRP Ledger’s Carbon Footprint Matches Just One Transatlantic Flight—Research Reveals Stunning Efficiency

XRP's sustainability smackdown leaves traditional finance looking downright prehistoric.

Carbon Calculus

While Wall Street jetsetters burn enough fuel crossing the Atlantic to power an entire blockchain network, the XRP Ledger quietly operates on less energy than a single one of those flights. The math doesn't lie—this isn't some theoretical greenwashing claim, it's verifiable on-chain reality.

Efficiency Engine

The ledger's consensus mechanism cuts out energy-guzzling mining entirely. No warehouses full of screaming ASICs, no nation-state level electricity demands—just lean validation that settles transactions in seconds while leaving carbon footprints smaller than a crypto influencer's attention span.

Banking's Dirty Secret

Meanwhile, traditional financial infrastructure chugs along like a steam engine in the quantum age. Those 'efficient' centralized systems? They're running on server farms that haven't seen an efficiency update since Bitcoin was worth pocket change. But hey—at least bankers get those sweet airline status miles while they're burning the equivalent of a blockchain network just to process your wire transfer.

XRP Ledger’s Energy Efficiency

The entire network’s carbon footprint equals just one Boeing 747 transatlantic flight, while a single XRPL transaction uses electricity comparable to powering an LED light for merely one millisecond.

As of September 1st, the network recorded annual emissions of just 63 tCO₂e, with each transaction producing a mere 8.1 mgCO₂e. Electricity usage was equally minimal, and recorded 493,677 kWh annually, with each transaction consuming only 0.020 Wh.

According to the XRPL’s official website, the XRP Ledger is the world’s first major global carbon-neutral public blockchain, which is designed to remain eco-friendly without compromising security, decentralization, or scalability.

Unlike traditional blockchains, XRPL’s consensus mechanism eliminates energy-intensive mining, and the small amount of energy it consumes is offset with carbon credits through EW Zero, an open-source tool that enables blockchains to decarbonize by purchasing renewable energy across the world.

Other Milestones

The XRP Ledger closed the second quarter of 2025 on a record-setting note, particularly in real-world assets (RWAs), where the network’s market cap hit $131.6 million, according to Messari. This growth was driven by new launches announced at XRPL Apex in Singapore, including Ondo’s OUSG tokenized treasury fund, Guggenheim’s digital commercial paper, and Ctrl Alt’s tokenized real estate.

While RWAs provided momentum, overall network activity presented a mixed picture. Active user engagement slowed, as evidenced by a 41% drop in average daily active addresses to 75,200, while new addresses plunged 46.2% to 305,800. Daily transactions also fell 20% to 1.6 million. However, total addresses grew 4% quarter-on-quarter to 6.5 million, while year-over-year metrics remained impressive, with daily active addresses up 165.5% and new addresses surging 219.8%.

Stablecoins remained a bright spot, led by Ripple’s RLUSD, which jumped 49% quarter-on-quarter to a $65.9 million market cap, and managed to cement its place as the largest XRPL stablecoin. The ecosystem further expanded with new launches like Circle’s USDC, USDB, EURØP, and XSGD.

Meanwhile, NFTs made a strong comeback, as daily transactions surged almost 227%, owing to a tenfold rise in minting activity under the XLS-20 standard, which ROSE to nearly 13.5 million mints.