- In Q1 2026, XRP utility grew as XRPL transactions elevated by 35% and institutional adoption expanded.
- RLUSD’s market cap elevated by 45% to $340 million, whereas XRPL’s tokenized RWA market elevated by 124% to $2.25 billion.
- The US Spot XRP ETF held 775 million XRP by the top of the quarter, regardless of decrease spot and futures buying and selling volumes.
A brand new report from crypto evaluation agency Messari highlights the rising utility of XRP and the XRP Ledger (XRPL). This progress is being pushed by elevated institutional adoption and increasing use circumstances for tokenized belongings, stablecoins, and decentralized finance (DeFi).
Based on Messari’s State of XRP 2026 Q1 Q1 report, the XRP ecosystem recorded progress throughout a number of key metrics. These embrace ETF holdings, buying and selling exercise, stablecoin adoption, and tokenization of real-world belongings (RWA).
XRP stays the highest crypto asset
Messari famous that XRP ended the primary quarter of 2026 because the fourth largest non-stablecoin cryptocurrency by market capitalization. Solely Bitcoin, Ethereum, and BNB ranked increased.
XRP ended the quarter with a market capitalization of $82.21 billion. This represents a 26.3% quarter-on-quarter decline. The report famous that XRP’s decline is roughly consistent with losses recorded by Bitcoin, Ethereum, and BNB throughout the identical interval.
Messari additionally highlighted some great benefits of XRP in blockchain networks that use federated consensus. XRP accounted for 93.7% of the market capitalization of native belongings on this class.
Institutional adoption drives community progress
The report attributes a lot of XRP’s rising utility to new institutional options being developed in XRPL.
Messari pointed to continued work on identification, compliance and privateness instruments. These options are designed to help extra institutional participation. As adoption continues, it’s anticipated that extra XRP will likely be used for reserve necessities, transaction charges, and bridging between belongings.
Community exercise displays this development. Common each day transactions elevated 35.3% quarter-over-quarter, with each day transactions growing from 1.83 million to 2.48 million.
The report additionally focuses on the upcoming native lending protocols for XRPL. This characteristic permits customers to lend and borrow XRP straight on the community, including one other layer of utility to the asset.
RLUSD and RWA markets report vital good points
Ripple’s USD-pegged stablecoin RLUSD continued to broaden quickly through the quarter. RLUSD’s market cap on XRPL elevated 45% sequentially to $340.3 million. This makes it the most important stablecoin on the community.
The tokenized real-world asset market has grown even quicker. XRPL’s RWA market capitalization elevated by 124% to an all-time excessive of $2.25 billion.
Messari stated this progress initially made XRPL the seventh largest blockchain by RWA worth on the finish of the primary quarter. Nonetheless, by the point the report was revealed, the community had risen to fourth place amongst all blockchains.
US Spot XRP ETF will increase holdings
The US spot XRP exchange-traded fund continued to build up XRP all through the quarter.
By the top of Q1 2026, the ETF held a complete of 775.4 million XRP. This corresponds to roughly 1.26% of the circulating provide. Holdings elevated by 1.9% quarter-on-quarter, reaching a peak of 810.2 million XRP on March third.
Messari stated the ETF’s possession is comparatively evenly distributed amongst 4 main funds: Canary Capital’s XRPC, Bitwise’s XRP ETF, Franklin Templeton’s XRPZ and 21Shares’ TOXR. Every fund held greater than 100 million XRP on the finish of the quarter.
The report notes {that a} spot XRP ETF turned potential solely after Ripple’s authorized dispute with the U.S. Securities and Alternate Fee was resolved in August 2025, an consequence that paved the way in which for regulatory approval.
Buying and selling exercise decreases as market declines
Regardless of strengthening adoption metrics, XRP buying and selling exercise slowed through the quarter. The typical each day quantity of perpetual futures fell 28.6% to $2.99 billion. Common each day spot buying and selling quantity additionally fell, dropping 32% to $2.69 billion.
Messari stated this decline primarily mirrored the decline in XRP’s market capitalization through the quarter.
Nonetheless, buying and selling quantity on decentralized exchanges (DEXs) together with XRP elevated by 9.4% quarter-on-quarter. Each day DEX buying and selling quantity reached $11.7 million, suggesting regular progress in on-chain buying and selling exercise.
Provide continues to lower on account of XRP burn mechanism
XRP Ledger transaction charges stay very low. Nonetheless, all charges paid on the community are completely burned. In the course of the first quarter, transaction charges measured in XRP decreased by 12% sequentially to 50,750 XRP.
For the reason that inception of XRPL, roughly 14.3 million XRP have been completely faraway from circulation on account of charge burning. Though the burn fee stays comparatively small on account of low transaction prices, this mechanism continues to place long-term deflationary strain on XRP’s mounted provide of 100 billion tokens.
Associated: The XRP North Star principle is defined as Ripple sharpening the utility push.
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