XRP’s price has dropped sharply during the first eight months of 2026, but activity on the XRP Ledger (XRPL) has continued to grow, with stablecoins, tokenised assets and Ripple’s institutional services all expanding.
XRP ended July at $1.06, a 42.7% fall from its 2025 closing price. Across the first eight months of the year, the token was down 27.5%, while its average daily trading volume fell by 64% to $2.38bn.
The decline came as the wider cryptocurrency market retreated from the optimism generated by exchange-traded funds late last year. However, XRPL’s average daily transactions increased by 21% to 2.4 million between January and July, according to Token Relation’s first-half report on Ripple and XRP.
That contrast has highlighted a widening gap between XRP’s market performance and the development of the network that supports it. Activity linked to payments, stablecoins and tokenised real-world assets has continued to increase, while the number of XRPL validators rose from 119 to 141.
RLUSD moves towards XRPL
The biggest shift came in the distribution of Ripple’s dollar-backed stablecoin, RLUSD.
Its total market capitalisation rose by 23.4% to $1.58bn by the end of July. At the same time, a much larger share of the supply moved on to the XRP Ledger.
By July, approximately $907.2m of RLUSD had been issued on XRPL, representing 58.9% of the stablecoin’s total supply. At the beginning of the year, the ledger accounted for only 18.4%.
RLUSD’s supply on Ethereum, meanwhile, fell by 39.4% to $632.2m.
The shift helped XRPL’s overall stablecoin market reach a record $1.02bn on 13 July. Although that figure had fallen to $798.4m by the end of the month, it was still 173.9% higher than in December.
RLUSD also secured integrations with LMAX Group and Convera. The stablecoin was listed on Binance, OKX and major South Korean cryptocurrency exchanges.
Ripple used the downturn in the first half of 2026 to broaden its operations beyond XRP trading.
The company obtained further regulatory approvals in Europe, opened a regional headquarters in Dubai and sought an Australian Financial Services licence through its proposed acquisition of BC Payments Australia.
Ripple Prime, its institutional trading service, added access to Hyperliquid, Coinbase Derivatives and EDX Markets. The business also agreed a $200m financing facility with Neuberger Specialty Finance to increase its lending capacity.
Tokenisation and institutional lending
Tokenisation has become another central part of XRPL’s expansion. The ledger now supports hundreds of real-world asset tokens covering US Treasuries, corporate credit, private equity and real estate.
Ondo and Guggenheim are among the institutions represented in the ecosystem.
Ripple, Clearpool and Cicada Partners are also building an institutional lending market on the XRP Ledger, with RLUSD being used as the credit asset.
For XRP holders, the growth in network activity appears to have coincided with a price recovery. The token was trading above $1.30, around 32% higher than its mid-August low of $1.
The continued expansion of XRPL into regulated payments, stablecoins and institutional cryptocurrency infrastructure has left investors weighing whether greater use of the network will eventually create sustained demand for XRP itself.
