During the first quarter of the year, the number of transactions conducted on the XRP Ledger (XRPL) surged by 108%, while fees dipped by 45%.
Ripple disclosed this data in its latest quarterly crypto market report. Notably, XRPL recorded 121,031,713 transactions in Q4 2023 but the number more than doubled to 251,397,881 by the end of Q1 2024.
While transactions surged, the average transaction fee reduced significantly by 45% compared to the previous quarter. In particular, XRPL’s average transaction fee reached a high of $0.001546 in the last quarter of 2023. The report observed that the fees peaked mainly in December, driven by extensive testing of inscriptions on the ledger.
Meanwhile, at the end of March, an average of $0.000856 was observed as XRPL’s transaction fees. Ripple noted that the subsequent reduction in transaction costs suggests a normalization of activity, with no network congestion reported throughout the first quarter of 2024.
Moreover, XRP transaction volume on the native decentralized exchange recorded a 5% quarter-over-quarter growth. Specifically, the DEX saw an XRP trading volume of $57,618,270 in the first quarter of 2024, compared to $54.9 million in the previous quarter.
Furthermore, XRP tokens burned for transaction fees doubled in the first quarter compared to figures for Q4 2023. XRPL witnessed the incineration of 636,184 XRP in Q1, marking a 101% increase from the 317,271 XRP burned in Q4 2023.
Fewer New Wallets
However, the XRP ecosystem welcomed fewer new market participants in Q1. Specifically, the number of new wallets reduced by 11%, with only 185,809 XRP wallets created in Q1. On the other hand, Q4 2023 saw 208,522 new wallets.
Vet, an XRPL dUNL validator, commented on these statistics. He found the contrast between the slower increase in new wallets and the rise in transactions particularly intriguing. He observed that this trend suggests existing users are engaging with the network more actively.
Ripple released the XRP Ledger Market Report for Q1 2024 !
Interesting to see a slower growth in new wallets by 11% but a double in transactions.
Existing users seem to be more active on chain !
source ⬇️: pic.twitter.com/ZFiC3nSIj7
— Vet 🏴☠️ (@Vet_X0) May 17, 2024
Meanwhile, the market value of XRP crashed by 5% quarter-over-quarter. The asset registered an average price of $0.59 in Q4 2023, but this figure dipped to $0.56 by the end of Q1.
Ripple’s Current XRP Holdings
On the other hand, Ripple’s latest quarterly report also provided an update on the company’s XRP reserves. As of December 31, 2023, Ripple’s liquid XRP balance stood at 5,077,658,695, with an additional 40.7 billion XRP in escrow.
By the end of the first quarter of 2024, Ripple’s spendable XRP had decreased to roughly 4.84 billion. Similarly, the escrowed amount diminished to 40.1 billion.
