The XRP Ledger is moving more value through fewer hands. Order-book trading volume rose 79% from a year earlier in the second quarter, while the number of accounts initiating trades fell by about 41%, according to a quarterly report from Evernorth, the XRP treasury company preparing to list on Nasdaq, shared with CoinDesk.
That worked out to roughly 3,200 XRP traded per active account each day, against about 1,070 a year earlier. The ledger crossed 8 million activated accounts for the first time in July, up from about 7.85 million in March, yet the day-to-day activity is concentrating in a much smaller group.
Fewer accounts, more value
The report shows the drop is broad. Accounts transacting on the ledger averaged about 16,600 a day in Q2, down 24% from a year earlier. New account creation fell about 25% to 2,800 a day. The number of assets XRP changed hands against on the order book fell to roughly 319 a day from 480, the lowest in the six quarters the report covers.
Despite the thinner activity, value held on the ledger climbed above $4 billion. Crypto Briefing, which reviewed the same data, noted a June snapshot where daily active addresses dropped roughly 61% to around 7,800 on the weakest days, with mid-year readings near 25,350.
Retail fades, or something else
The data cannot show whether institutions are directly replacing retail traders. It does show that a smaller group of accounts is doing the trading. Average transaction size has grown sharply, which points to larger, less frequent transfers rather than a stream of small speculative bets.
Crypto Briefing’s take was that a ledger moving billions in tokenized assets through fewer, larger transactions can be healthier economically than one generating thousands of tiny retail transfers. That reading is not settled. A drop of 41% in active trading accounts over four quarters could also signal cooling interest in the token itself, especially since XRP’s price has swung sharply this year, trading near $1.40 after a 40% weekly rally in late August.
Context helps. CoinDesk reported in August on proposed changes designed to add confidentiality to tokenized assets on the ledger, letting balances and transfers stay private while giving issuers, auditors or regulators selective access. Work like that is aimed squarely at institutional issuers, not retail users. Ripple has also been building tokenization infrastructure through partnerships with traditional finance firms, including a deal with Finastra that opens the door to thousands of SWIFT member banks.
What the numbers say
| Metric | Q2 2026 | A year earlier | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Order-book volume | Up 79% year over year | Baseline | +79% |
| Accounts initiating trades | About 41% fewer | Baseline | -41% |
| XRP per account per day | About 3,200 | About 1,070 | +199% |
| Daily transacting accounts | About 16,600 | About 21,800 | -24% |
| New accounts per day | About 2,800 | About 3,700 | -25% |
| Assets traded against daily | About 319 | 480 | -18% |
The report arrives as spot XRP ETFs in the US keep drawing inflows and Goldman Sachs, Jane Street and Millennium show up among the largest institutional holders in Q2 filings. The treasury company publishing the data is itself part of that institutional wave, so some caution is due on framing. A company preparing to list on Nasdaq has reasons to describe concentration as maturity rather than decline.
The ETF flows tell their own story. Spot XRP funds logged eleven straight sessions of inflows in early September, pulling in about $170 million during that stretch and $1.68 billion since launch, per CoinDesk. Goldman Sachs alone held $87.4 million of XRP ETF shares in its Q2 13F filing, with Jane Street at $16.6 million and Millennium at $16.2 million. Those positions are small next to bitcoin ETF holdings, but they mark a clear institutional footprint on a token that spent years fighting the SEC in court.
Either way, the shape of activity on the ledger has changed. Total value is up, the number of counterparties and daily users is down, and each trade is much larger than it was a year ago. The next few quarters will show whether that is a permanent shift toward bigger, institutional-style flows or a pause before broader participation returns.
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