XRP added wallets at a rate not seen in 13 years during Q1 2026. At the same time, XRP price lost more than half its value from the January peak. The network’s adoption curve and its price chart moved in opposite directions for an entire quarter, and the on-chain data now makes that divergence measurable.
XRP is growing faster than ever but the market is telling a completely different story. While millions of wallets flooded the network, the token lost over half its value in just three months.
TLDR
- XRP Ledger non-empty wallets crossed 7.7 million in Q1 2026, the highest count in the network’s 13-year history, per Santiment data published March 17.
- Daily transactions approached 3 million, nearly triple the mid-2025 rate of approximately 1 million per day.
- High-net-worth entity wallets holding more than 100,000 XRP reached 32,054, while mid-tier addresses (100 to 100,000 XRP) exceeded 2.01 million, per Santiment.
- Tokenized commodities on XRPL expanded from $111 million to $1.14 billion in Q1 2026, placing the network second globally behind Ethereum with approximately 15% of the tokenized commodities market.
- AMM pools on the ledger reached 27,503, locking 12.52 million XRP in aggregate liquidity, per XRPScan.
- XRP’s spot price fell from above $2.80 in early January to approximately $1.31 by April 3, a depreciation of more than 53% over the quarter.
The XRP Ledger recorded 7.7 million non-empty wallets during Q1 2026, the highest figure in its operating history. Address growth for the quarter came in at 3.3%, according to on-chain data reviewed against Santiment’s analytics platform. The milestone arrived as broader crypto market conditions produced sustained downside pressure on XRP’s price.
Active addresses reached a five-week high of 46,767 on March 16, 2026. That figure represents accounts that transacted within the measurement period, not dormant wallets. The gap between total address count and active address count points to a large base of holders who accumulated during the downturn without actively transacting.
Retail-tier addresses holding fewer than 100 XRP account for 5.66 million of the total wallet count, up from approximately 4.7 million in early 2025. The growth in this bracket reflects continued retail onboarding throughout a period of sustained price depreciation.
Transaction Volume Nearly Triples Year Over Year
Daily transaction counts on XRPL approached 3 million as of mid-March 2026, compared to approximately 1 million per day recorded in mid-2025. That represents a 200% increase over a 12-month period, placing XRPL among the faster-growing layer-1 networks by transaction volume on an absolute basis.
The volume composition matters. A high proportion of Q1 transactions consisted of offer cancellations on the network’s native decentralised exchange, driven by automated market participants adjusting positions in response to price volatility. This type of automated activity inflates raw transaction counts relative to peer-to-peer payment volume.
XRPL’s fee structure remained stable through the volume expansion. The network processed blocks containing up to 700 transactions without a fee escalation event, a structural advantage over networks subject to congestion-based pricing.
Holder Distribution Breakdown
Santiment published a full wallet tier breakdown on March 21, 2026. The data segments the 7.7 million total addresses into three brackets:
| Tier | XRP Range | Wallet Count | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Retail | Less than 100 XRP | 5.66 million | Santiment |
| Mid-tier | 100 to 100,000 XRP | 2.01 million | Santiment |
| High-net-worth | More than 100,000 XRP | 32,054 | Santiment |
The high-net-worth bracket reached a new record at 32,054 addresses. Entities in this tier control a disproportionate share of XRP’s circulating supply. Growth at this level, occurring during a period of price depreciation, indicates accumulation by capital-heavy participants at lower price points rather than distribution.
Mid-tier address growth above 2 million confirms that the expansion is not limited to the retail segment. This bracket includes individual investors, smaller institutions, and market participants using XRP for operational liquidity purposes.
Tokenized Commodities Expand 10x on XRPL
Tokenized commodities on the XRP Ledger grew from $111 million at the start of 2026 to $1.14 billion by mid-March, according to data from RWA.xyz. This places XRPL second among all blockchains for tokenized commodity value, behind Ethereum’s approximately $5 billion, and accounts for roughly 15% of the global tokenized commodities market.
This is one of the clearest cases in 2026 where network growth and market price have completely diverged.
The single largest contributor is Justoken’s JMWH product, a tokenised energy asset representing real megawatt-hours of electricity output from Latin American power companies. JMWH accounts for $861 million of the $1.14 billion total across 12 holders. Ctrl Alt’s tokenised diamond collections contribute a combined $188.5 million across four tranches.
Total real-world asset value on XRPL, including stablecoins and private credit, reached $2.17 billion. Stablecoins represent $422.8 million of that figure, with Ripple’s RLUSD contributing $347 million. Private credit accounts for $322.3 million.
AMM Liquidity Pools Reach 27,503
Automated market maker pools on the XRP Ledger numbered 27,503 as of mid-March 2026, per XRPScan on-chain data. These pools collectively hold 12.52 million XRP in locked liquidity. AMM infrastructure on XRPL is a native protocol feature rather than a smart contract layer, which removes a category of exploit risk present on other networks.
The DEX that underpins these pools routes approximately 92% of trades through XRP pairs, making XRP the functional bridge asset for on-ledger token exchanges. Daily DEX volume remains in the $4 million to $8 million range, low relative to the total value locked. The infrastructure is operating at scale; institutional trading volume has not yet followed at equivalent scale.
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XRP Price Action Versus Network Metrics
XRP opened Q1 2026 above $2.80 and closed the period around $1.31 as of April 3, 2026, per Coingecko. The 53% price depreciation occurred against a backdrop of rising wallet counts, expanding transaction volume, and accelerating real-world asset onboarding.
Layer-1 tokens have historically shown periods where adoption metrics and market price move in opposite directions. The data from Q1 2026 documents one such period: network utilisation continued to expand while speculative capital rotated out of the asset.
Standard Chartered revised its 2026 XRP price target from $8.00 to $2.80 in March, citing on-chain activity metrics it assessed as insufficient to justify the prior valuation. Seven spot XRP ETFs hold a combined $1.32 billion in assets under management, with weekly inflows declining sharply from launch highs.
Data Summary
| Metric | Q1 2026 Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Non-empty wallets | 7.7 million (ATH) | Santiment |
| Address growth, Q1 | 3.3% | On-chain data |
| Daily transactions | ~3 million | Evernorth |
| Active addresses peak | 46,767 (March 16) | Santiment |
| High-net-worth wallets (100K+ XRP) | 32,054 | Santiment |
| Mid-tier wallets (100 to 100K XRP) | 2.01 million | Santiment |
| Tokenized commodities | $1.14 billion | RWA.xyz |
| Total RWA on XRPL | $2.17 billion | RWA.xyz |
| AMM pools | 27,503 | XRPScan |
| XRP locked in AMMs | 12.52 million XRP | XRPScan |
| XRP price change Q1 | -53% ($2.80 to $1.31) | Coingecko |
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. Cryptocurrency markets are volatile, and readers should conduct their own research before making financial decisions.
Pijus Paul is the Founder and Lead Cryptocurrency Market Analyst at Cryptowealthnet. He specializes in Bitcoin and altcoin price predictions supported by technical analysis, market cycle evaluation, and risk-managed scenario planning. His price forecasts emphasize probability, structure, and disciplined strategy rather than speculation. LinkedIn: Pijus Paul
