XRP Surges to New All-Time High

Ripple-linked asset XRP surged to a new all-time high price last week, despite a noted shift away from retail activity on the XRP Ledger blockchain.

Data collected since the start of the year indicates a “wholesale migration” according to analysts at Serotonin. They observed a significant drop in daily active accounts along with increased volumes and fee loads per user.

> “Daily user counts have fallen sharply, while per-user metrics such as volume, fee load and liquidity provision have climbed, suggesting that casual participants are leaving but the capital that remains is being deployed more intensively,” said Paige Horinek, Senior Growth Analytics Manager at Serotonin.

Serotonin’s XRPL data shows about a 50% decrease in daily active users on the XRP Ledger since January 1, dropping from approximately 39,500 to around 19,500 by June 29.

Moreover, nearly all platform activity is payment-related, with up to 99.7% of on-ledger volumes categorized as such. Trades and swaps on decentralized exchanges—indicative of retail speculative activity—never exceeded 1%.

This data points to XRP’s transformation into “wholesale settlement rails,” according to Serotonin.

Historically, XRP’s presence in the crypto space has been tied to a strong retail base or an “army” of staunch supporters that have rallied through a prolonged legal battle with the SEC, which is still in discussion despite multiple attempted settlements.

On Wednesday, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse cautioned XRP holders to be wary of a surge in scams on YouTube, following the token’s rise to the third-largest market capitalization per CoinGecko.

The retail narrative surrounding XRP may soon be purely narrative as the underlying network matures.

> “The evolving XRPL landscape shows clear signs of wholesale migration: As regulatory conditions change, casual on-chain users are leaving, but survivors are moving larger volumes, committing more liquidity per capita, and building more infrastructure,” added Horinek.

She noted, “For retail traders, the playground is shrinking; for institutions, XRP increasingly resembles an interbank settlement network. Whether this wholesale pivot adds or destroys value remains an open question—but it’s a different network than it was a year ago.”

XRP is up roughly 3% on Thursday to $3.19, down about 12% from its all-time high of $3.65 last week.