XRP Holds $3.2B Trading Floor While XRPL Activity Craters—Traders Keep Faith as Network Stutters

XRP’s Q1 trading volume defied the bears—flat at $3.2B despite regulatory headwinds. But the XRP Ledger tells a darker story: active addresses and transactions nosedived 40% quarter-over-quarter.

Liquidity vs. Utility Divide:
Exchange volumes suggest speculative demand remains robust (or desperate), while on-chain activity withers—classic crypto theater.

The Institutional Whisper:
Some hedge funds still treat XRP as a ’regulated altcoin’ play, thanks to Ripple’s partial SEC win. Never mind that the XRPL’s DeFi ecosystem looks emptier than a Wall Street analyst’s original thoughts.

Watch for Q2: If trading volume follows usage downward, even the most delusional bagholders might need a new narrative.

Trading behavior and pair composition

XRP trading remained heavily skewed toward stablecoin pairs, led by USDT. The proportion of volume traded via fiat pairs increased modestly from 25% in the last quarter of 2024 to 29% in this year’s first quarter, indicating a mild shift toward traditional currency rails. 

Overall, the volume pattern highlights XRP’s liquidity resilience and ongoing preference for stablecoin-based markets. It outperformed other major altcoins relative to the broader market, with the XRP/BTC volume ratio climbing more than 10% during the quarter.

This performance placed XRP above Cardano (ADA), BNB, and Solana (SOL) in terms of rolling average dollar volume. 

At quarter-end, XRP traded at $2.09, with a 30-day ADV of $2.8 billion and a 90-day ADV of $3.3 billion, trailing only Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) in absolute trading activity.

Volatility conditions and price performance

XRP’s price trajectory followed a sharp arc through the quarter. Starting below $2.00, the token rallied to a multi-year high of $3.40 in early February before retracing to $2.09 by the end of March. 

Realized volatility reflected these moves, beginning the year at 150%, then falling to NEAR 100% during a period of market calm, before rebounding to stabilize around 130% through the rest of the quarter.

The price run-up was driven by anticipation around XRP-related regulatory clarity and product expansion, though profit-taking and broader market recalibrations contributed to the subsequent pullback.

Nonetheless, XRP’s closing price at the end of the first quarter represented an 89% increase in its average closing price compared to last year’s fourth quarter.

On-chain metrics show contraction

While exchange volume held firm, on-chain activity on the XRPL declined in line with broader crypto network slowdowns. Total transactions fell by over 37% quarter-over-quarter to 105.5 million, while wallet creation dropped 40% to 423,727. 

XRP burned as transaction fees decreased by 31%, and average transaction costs in US dollars doubled due to the increase in XRP’s price.

Despite the contraction in CORE metrics, DeFi activity on XRPL proved relatively more durable. Decentralized exchanges’ volume declined 17%, outperforming on-chain metrics from Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other major blockchains. 

RLUSD, Ripple’s USD stablecoin, surpassed $90 million in market cap with over $300 million in cumulative decentralized trading volume.

Despite the broad market woes in the first quarter, XRP trading volume remained steady, suggesting what could be investors’ demand or appetite for short-term trading.