According to Messari’s State of XRP 2026 Q1 report, the market view is that XRP had a weak start heading into 2026, but activity on the XRP Ledger increased sharply during the same period.
summary
In the first quarter, XRP price fell by 27%, but the number of daily XRPL transactions increased by 35.3% to 2.48 million. RLUSD reached $340.3 million in XRPL, becoming the network’s largest stablecoin by the end of the quarter. XRPL’s RWA market capitalization increased 124.1% from the previous quarter to $2.25 billion, marking a new quarterly high.
XRP price falls as trading cools
Messari said XRP ended the first quarter as the fourth-largest non-stablecoin crypto asset by market capitalization, behind Bitcoin, Ethereum, and BNB. Still, the token followed the overall market decline during the quarter.
XRP’s market capitalization decreased by 26.3% from the previous quarter to $82.21 billion. The price also fell by 27.1% to $1.34, but the circulating supply increased by 1.1% to 61.34 billion XRP.
Trading activity also slowed. Average daily spot trading volume fell 32% in the quarter, while perpetual futures trading volume fell 28.6%, Messari said.
According to the report, the US Spot XRP ETF ended the first quarter with 775.4 million XRP holdings. This represented 1.26% of circulating supply, an increase of 1.9% from the previous quarter.
XRPL transactions increase
While XRP price fell, network activity moved in the opposite direction. Messari said the average daily transaction value on the XRP ledger increased 35.3% quarter-over-quarter.
The number of transactions per day increased from 1.83 million to 2.48 million. This increase suggests that XRPL usage has expanded despite a cooling in token prices and trading activity.
The report links that growth to the network’s broader feature set. XRPL will continue to support payments, token issuance, decentralized liquidity, real-world assets, and stablecoins.
Messari also pointed out that XRP remains tied to network usage through transaction fees, account reserves, liquidity, asset ownership, and bridging between currencies.
RLUSD and tokenized assets drive growth
Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin grew during the quarter. Messari said RLUSD ended the first quarter with a market capitalization of $340.3 million for XRPL, an increase of 44.9% quarter-on-quarter.
This makes RLUSD the largest stablecoin on the XRP Ledger. The report also stated that although RLUSD had more XRPL holders than Ethereum by the end of the quarter, Ethereum still processed more transfer volume.
XRPL’s real-world asset market capitalization has also increased significantly. The market capitalization of RWA on the network rose 124.1% from the previous quarter to $2.25 billion, Messari said.
This growth has propelled XRPL into the top group of public blockchains for tokenized assets. The network ranked seventh in RWA market capitalization at the end of the first quarter and fourth at the time of publication, according to the report.
Expanding financial tools for institutional investors
Messari said new institutional financial tools also made progress during the quarter. Allowed Domains, Allowed DEX, and Token Escrow are now live on XRPL.
Native lending and asset custodial features remained on the ballot. If approved, these tools could support lending, borrowing, and more structured use of XRP and other assets on the network.
As previously reported by crypto.news, Morgan Stanley recently revealed small positions in two XRP-focused ETFs. The XRP fund also saw inflows of $85.8 million in three weeks, showing continued demand through regulated products.
Other reports also point to major market tensions. While RLUSD helps increase the usage of XRPL, stablecoin payments do not always create the same direct demand for XRP as a bridge asset.
Messerli said the report was commissioned by Ripple and that Messerli retains editorial control. The report still shows a clear split in the first quarter. Although XRP price and trading activity have declined, XRPL trading, RLUSD adoption, and tokenized asset growth have increased.
