Key Insights:
- XRP daily payments are approaching the 3-million mark in 2026 even as XRP price remains under pressure, showing strong network usage despite weak market performance.
- Rapid XRPL growth is being driven by tokenized real-world assets, rising automated market maker pools, and higher transaction activity rather than long-term capital locked in the network.
- Ripple’s valuation has climbed to nearly $50 billion after recent buybacks and acquisitions, while XRP continues to lag behind the broader crypto market, raising questions about the link between adoption
The active use of the XRP network has increased dramatically over the past few weeks, as the number of payments per day on the XRP Ledger approaches the three-million point, even though the prices of all altcoins continue to be weak.
The larger cryptocurrency sphere lost over half a trillion of value since the onset of the year, with XRP contributing about $26.39 billion of the drop. This is approximately 4.78% of a total market contraction and that indicates that the token has declined at a rate greater than the general industry.
Despite the continued strain on price performance, ledger trading has steadily grown in recent months since a series of protocol upgrades such as introduction of Permissioned Domains and other infrastructure enhancements. The most recent on-chain information indicates that daily payments are increasing to above 2.5 million and the network is now approaching the levels we have not been in since the past bull cycles.
Daily payment volume nears key 3 million level
According to on-chain statistics provided by the treasury firm, Evernorth, it is now estimated that the daily payments in XRP are around 3 million transactions (a significant improvement over the daily average of approximately one million payments made in mid-2025).
Historical data shows that activity began to increase late in 2024, when market optimism pushed daily payments from roughly 1.1 million to nearly 2.5 million during January 2025. After that surge, activity fluctuated between 1.3 million and 2.3 million for several months before falling below one million during the middle of the year.
The revival that ensued in the end of 2025 was less impressive, however, the beginning of 2026 witnessed new momentum with daily payment numbers returning to the 1.5 million mark and still increasing. Recent readings are in an average between 2 million and 2.8 million payments per day which is the highest activity since December 2024.
Tokenized assets and pools drive ledger growth
Network growth has been linked to increasing use of tokenized real-world assets and the expansion of automated market maker pools on the XRP Ledger. Current estimates suggest that tokenized assets on the network now exceed $460 million in total value.
According to XRPScan, the ledger also has approximately 20 to 26 transactions per second and the automated market maker pools have reached approximately 27,000 active pools. All of these pools hold over 16,000 tokens, indicating speedy growth of the ecosystem despite the poor price momentum.
Source: DeFiLlama.
Though activity has increased, the total amount locked on the ledger is relatively small in comparison to other major networks, according to DeFiLlama statistics it is around $48 million. This market loophole highlights the point that most of the actions are executed by transfers and trading rather than being committed to capital in the long term.
Ripple valuation rises while XRP price falls
At the same time that network usage increases, Ripple’s corporate valuation has climbed significantly, creating a contrast between business performance and token price. The company recently completed a $750 million share buyback that valued the firm at about $50 billion.
This value causes Ripple to be among the most valuable startups within the digital asset industry, although XRP is trading much lower than in the past rallies. The token had started the year 2026 on a positive upward movement above a price of 2 and even reached a point of 2.40 but stopped as a result of a weak market.
Current prices near $1.40 represent a drop of more than 40% from the yearly high, showing that increased usage has not translated into immediate market strength. Analysts say the divergence suggests that external speculation still plays a major role in determining the token’s valuation.
Adoption expansion raises questions about token demand
Ripple also has not been restricted to its initial specialization of payments and in 2025, it acquired multiple companies to create brokerage, custody and treasury products. These will be additions such as the prime brokerage Hidden Road, infrastructure provider of stable coins Rail, treasury provider GTreasury, and custody provider Palisade.
The company now has dozens of international licenses, and is expanding its enterprise services business, which the observers view as pulling out direct reliance on XRP as a source of revenue. This has brought about argument among investors on whether the growth in network activity could sustain price growth in the long term.
Trading and transfers on the ledger are still growing, but staking and locked value are still minimal, indicating that a majority of users do not engage with the network by holding significant quantities of the token. As far as 2026 lasts, the mix of high utilization and low price will keep the XRP in the centre of market discourse.
