- XRPL’s average daily transactions increased 22.7% quarter-over-quarter.
- The price of XRP rose 19.3% from the previous quarter.
The payments-focused network Ripple [XRP Ledger] witnessed a sharp increase in activity across key industries in the fourth quarter of 2023, said a report published by blockchain analytics company Messari.
Transactions jump as a result of registrations
One of the biggest results was a 22.7% increase in quarterly average daily transactions (QoQ). This was largely attributed to a sharp spike in payments in December for inscription-related activities.
At the end of December, more than 22 million payments were registered in one week. As a result, payments’ dominance as a transaction type skyrocketed to 35% in the fourth quarter.
Source: Messari
Active addresses are decreasing
However, the report noted that the jump in payment transactions did not result in a spike in active addresses on the XRPL. Average daily active addresses fell sharply by 31% in the fourth quarter.
The difference arose because most of the transaction activity was limited to a small group of accounts that sent transactions to a single account. While the number of shipping addresses increased, there was a sharp decline in the number of recipient addresses.
Source: Messari
On the plus side, XRPL’s network growth looked promising with a 31.5% jump in new addresses. In addition, the total number of accounts increased by 3.7% to 5 million, an important milestone for the network.
NFT coins are rising, but DEX volumes are falling
The increase in transactions in the fourth quarter was also due to the increase in the number of non-fungible token (NFT) mints.
As seen below, mints saw a nearly sixfold increase in the fourth quarter, driving total NFT transactions up 169%. Additionally, mints accounted for 83% of all NFT transactions.
Source: Messari
In contrast, XRPL’s average daily decentralized exchange (DEX) volume fell 78.7% quarter-over-quarter to $562,000. That said, the dominance of the vertical sector over the NFT sector can be understood from the illustration below.
Source: Messari
The State of XRP
Shifting focus to the blockchain’s native token According to the research, this was a significant slowdown compared to the overall market gain of 53.8%.
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At the time of writing, XRP was the sixth largest cryptocurrency by market cap, trading hands at $0.52, AMBCrypto found using CoinMarketCap.
Short-term issues aside, the digital asset has delivered a 36% return to holders over the past year, helped in part by its partial victory at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.