A recent surge in XRP Ledger (XRPL) payment counts has caught the attention of the broader crypto market, raising questions about what could be driving this massive rally. The latest milestone comes after XRP saw renewed whale accumulation even as prices continued to trend downward amid rising volatility. XRP Ledger Records Mysterious Surge In Payment Count Data from XRP’s leading blockchain explorer, XRPScan, shows that on May 19, the number of XRP payments from one account to another was sitting around just 766,051. However, over the next few days, the payment count rose sharply, surpassing 1.22 million on May 22, representing a more than 300,000 increase in users. Related Reading: Market Expert Updates XRP Roadmap To $300 With New Data Before this surge, the payment count from one account to another consistently ranged between 700,000 and 800,000, making the latest rally a bit unnatural. Interestingly, XRP Ledger payment volume during the same period saw only a modest change. On May 19, volume stood at approximately 434.9 million, edging up to 486.2 million on May 22, reflecting a minor rise of just over 51 million, which hardly mirrors the dramatic spike in user accounts. Given the recent decline in the XRP price and the prolonged sideways movement, the unexpected surge in user count on the ledger is suspicious. It begs the question of where these users came from and, more importantly, why they arrived at a time when market enthusiasm appears muted. Typically, when a cryptocurrency’s user count increases as price declines, it suggests two things: either genuine accumulation by XRP holders or a coordinated wallet activity. Notably, Nepetia, an XRP supporter who also noticed the unusual surge in payment count, has shared comments on it. In a May 24 X post, she stated that even as the market continues pulling back, XRP’s payment count and volume continue to rise, indicating underlying strength. Nepetia said that whales have also accumulated over 71 million XRP in just seven days while Spot XRP ETFs continue to post positive inflows. Against this backdrop, she noted that these recent developments are important market signals suggesting the XRP price may be preparing for a sharp move. XRP Whales Step Back From Accumulating XRP Whales had been actively buying tokens over the past few months. However, the latest report from crypto analyst Ali Martinez reveals that in the last nine days, whale activity on the XRP Ledger has dropped from 157 large transactions worth over $1 million to just 67, as of May 23. He noted that this gap represents a decline of more than 57.3% in whale activity. Related Reading: XRP OI Z-Score Just Dropped To Levels Seen Before Its 600% Rally In 2024 Interpreting the movements, Martinez explained that when large-scale transaction volume decreases by this magnitude, it suggests that the market could be entering a major compression phase. He noted that whales appear to have stepped back from accumulating, allowing the current XRP price range, between $1.3 and $1.4, to settle. He stated that this shift naturally reduces immediate volatility and allows order books to mature. Featured image from Getty Images, chart from Tradingview.com
The mechanics behind XRP’s supply have always been public. A breakdown on X from crypto commentator Crypto Tony looks at the process of XRP unlocks in particular, with the theory that the payments technology company is, in fact, diluting every holder of XRP. The Escrow Machine and How It Works In a detailed post on X, a crypto commentator known as Crypto Tony laid out an interesting theory as to why Ripple keeps unlocking and selling millions of XRP every month to his hundreds of thousands of followers. Related Reading: 4-Figure XRP: How High Will The Price Be If Ripple Captures 50% Of SWIFT? To understand the controversy, it starts with how XRP was created and distributed. When XRP launched in 2012, all 100 billion tokens were minted at once. Ripple’s founders took 20 billion for themselves and handed the remaining 80 billion to the company. For the first five years, nothing legally prevented Ripple from selling as much of that supply as it wanted. In late 2017, the company placed 55 billion XRP into escrow accounts on the XRP Ledger. These escrows release up to 1 billion XRP every month, automatically, on a fixed schedule. This was probably meant to address concerns that Ripple could flood the market at any time. Based on that framework, Ripple releases one billion XRP each month but relocks between 60% and 80% of the tokens, and they keep the rest, which is roughly 200 to 300 million XRP. According to Crypto Tony, the remainder is kept by Ripple and used to fund the entire company. Ripple Is Diluting XRP Holders A major part of the analyst’s discussion is how Ripple has been diluting the value of traders holding XRP, citing major examples as to how this is happening. Related Reading: Is XRP The Solution To Everything? Ripple President Drops Bombshell That Changes Everything That funding model has been acknowledged publicly. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has previously indicated in interviews that XRP sales play a role in sustaining the company. The more uncomfortable chapter noted by Crypto Tony concerns how Ripple has, at various points, used its commercial partnerships to move XRP into the market through a secondary layer of sellers. An example is when Ripple paid MoneyGram more than $61 million in market development fees to use XRP. MoneyGram subsequently told reporters it sold XRP as soon as it received it, holding no inventory of the token. The SEC addressed this arrangement in its complaint against Ripple, writing that MoneyGram had become a conduit for Ripple’s unregistered XRP sales. According to Crypto Tony, every holder of XRP is being slowly diluted by the company itself, by design, on a monthly schedule that’s written into the blockchain. This is a major reason as to why XRP is now down six consecutive months. Crypto Tony also mentioned Jed McCaleb, co-founder of Ripple, as another conduit through which the holdings of XRP holders were diluted. McCaleb left the company with 9 billion XRP and spent 8 years dumping about $3.2 billion worth of his holdings. At the time of writing, Ripple still has about 33.355 billion XRP in its escrow wallets, according to data from XRPScan. Featured image from Pxfuel, chart from Tradingview.com
The XRP Ledger (XRPL) has witnessed a dramatic surge in on-chain transactions, with payment volumes between accounts surging by 500%. This sharp increase highlights a significant rise in transactions and address activity on the blockchain, marking one of the highest spikes recorded this year. XRP Sees Record-Breaking On-Chain Activity Data from XRPScans confirms that on August 18, 2025, the XRP Ledger recorded a massive rise in network activity, processing 844,516,631 tokens in payments between accounts. This figure dwarfs the average daily flows seen throughout this month. The surge also marks an increase of more than 500% compared to the previous day, when payment volume totaled only 159,685,255. Related Reading: XRP Price Being Manipulated? XRPL Validator Shares Scathing Blockchain Findings Typically, such spikes in on-chain activity often indicate growing adoption, whether through institutional participation, retail engagement, or whale repositioning. Historically, sudden bursts of transactional volume have preceded major price movements, as they tend to reflect rising demand. XRPScan’s payments chart also highlights the cryptocurrency’s shifting volume trends throughout the year. For much of 2025, XRP payments largely fluctuated at a lower baseline, with occasional bursts of activity. While August stands out, July saw an even more heightened activity, with 1.41 billion payments logged on the 21st. Despite the sharp rise in on-chain activity, the XRP price has yet to reflect the surge, trading without any significant upside reaction. However, sustained growth in payment volume could strengthen the cryptocurrency’s underlying fundamentals, potentially setting the stage for a new wave of market interest. Whale Sell-Offs Weigh On Price Over the past week, the XRP price has dropped roughly 10% to around $2.89 despite the recent spike in payment volume. According to a post on X social media by crypto exchange XChangeOn, this decline has been partially attributed to heavy whale selling and ongoing market volatility. Related Reading: Key Levels To Watch In Light Of XRP’s Macro Future In just ten days, a staggering 470 million XRP were offloaded, with several of these transfers exceeding 100 million tokens each. XChangeOn noted in its post that much of this supply had found its way to Binance, adding significant selling pressure to the already fragile market. Interestingly, these moves came after whales had accumulated over $360 million worth of XRP during earlier price dips, suggesting that large players may now be realizing profits or repositioning ahead of broader market shifts. XChangeOn indicated that the growing selling pressure has placed XRP at risk of testing support levels between $2.70 and $2.50. From the current price of $2.89, this represents a potential decline of approximately 6.6% and 13.5%, respectively. If downward pressure continues, the cryptocurrency is expected to experience further weakness in the short term. However, XChangeOn notes that reduced inflows to exchanges and renewed whale accumulation could act as stabilizing forces. Featured image from Getty Images, chart from Tradingview.com