Q4 2024 XRP Markets Report

For over a decadeRipple has been leading the charge on crypto innovationbuilding solutions leveraging XRP and the XRP Ledgerand providing crypto infrastructure for financial institutions. Ripple publishes the quarterly XRP Markets Reportsharing insights on the state of crypto markets and updates on the XRP ecosystem. As an XRP holderRipple values open communication and trustdriving global adoption and building utility for crypto.

Key Highlights

• After years of market manipulation by the SECXRPonce the second most valuable digital assetrebounded as the regulatory overhang easedsurging by 280% in Q4.
• President Trump’s executive order marked a monumental shiftpaving the way for innovation and tremendous growth in the U.S. by calling for regulatory clarity through comprehensive legislation and fair banking access for legal crypto businesses.
• The demand for XRP products continued on its positive trajectory as WisdomTree and Coinshares filed an S-1 for a spot XRP ETF joining three other ETF issuersincluding BitwiseCanary Capitaland 21 Shares.
  
  

Crypto Markets Summary

The final quarter of 2024 marked a turning point for the crypto marketsparking optimism for a new era of growth for the industryspecifically in the U.S. Following President Donald Trump’s victorymarkets focused on how the Federal Reserve would navigate interest rate cutswary of triggering inflation. The Fed’s cautious approach contributed to a stable environmentwhich coincided with a broad rally across global assetsincluding cryptocurrencies.

Amid this rallyXRP stood out with a 280% surge during Q4. This rise reflected more than just market dynamics—it was a recovery years in the making. Ripple and the broader XRP ecosystem had been stifled by the SEC’s actionswhich artificially manipulated the marketdampened trader confidenceand held back growth. Seven years agobefore the SEC anointed ETH and attacked XRP and RippleXRP was the second most valuable digital asset. With regulatory overhang easingXRP found itself in a new position of strength. 

XRP’s rally was driven by strong demand on major exchangeswith Binance leading the way (36% of spot volume)followed by Upbit Korea (20%) and Coinbase (9%). Following Trump’s election victoryspot trading volumes across all exchanges surged significantlyaveraging $5 billion daily from mid-November through December—up from $500 million the previous month. December 2 marked a record-breaking daywith nearly $25 billion in spot volume traded across CCData’s Top Tier exchanges. NotablyCoinbase doubled its share of total XRP trading volumeunderscoring U.S. enthusiasm and demand for crypto.

The majority of activity in XRP markets centered on spot trading rather than short-term speculative betsa sign that buyers were buying to holdreflecting confidence in XRP’s long-term potential based on many external market dynamics. Institutional demand for XRP products continued to increase as WisdomTree and Coinshares filed an S-1 for a spot XRP joining three other ETF issuersincluding BitwiseCanary Capitaland 21 Shares.

With the new U.S. administration at the helm and continued strong institutional interestthe crypto industry is poised for a period of unprecedented growth and innovation.

SEC Lawsuit 
On January 15the SEC filed its opening brief in its appeal. As expectedthe SEC’s appeal was a rehash of arguments that have already failed in court. NotablyRipple had requested the SEC to postpone the filing of their opening brief considering the forthcoming leadership changesbut the SEC refused. In terms of next stepsRipple will formally respond to this brief by April 16 and looks forward to working with new SEC leadership.

It’s important to note that the appeal does not question whether XRP itself is a security. To understand more about what the SEC is (and more importantlyisn’t) appealingplease refer to this fact sheet. 

A New Era of Pro-Innovation Regulation in the U.S.
For the first timethe U.S. has a pro-crypto President in the White House and a pro-crypto Congressboth committed to advancing policies that support the crypto industry. Within his first week in officePresident Trump’s administration signaled its dedication to revitalizing and fostering crypto innovation in the U.S. 

President Trump signed an executive order, pronouncing the important role cryptoblockchain and digital financial technology all play in the U.S. economy. The executive order underscores a monumental shift in the U.S.’ approach to crypto: a call for regulatory clarity through comprehensive legislationsupport for private stablecoin innovation backed by U.S. Treasuriesand ensuring open and fair access to banking services for legal businesses. The EO also calls for the establishment of a Working Group on digital asset markets - further highlighting that establishing regulatory clarity for the digital asset industry is a top priority for this administration. Finallythe EO includes a call for recommendations on the development of a U.S. digital asset stockpile.

Also within the same weekthe SEC took a significant step of rescinding SAB 121 – a policy widely criticized as harmful guidance that discouraged banks from partnering with crypto companies. The GAO had determined that SAB 121 violated the rulemaking processmaking its removal a positive and critical move for the industry. 

LastlyGary Gensler resigned as SEC Chairreplaced with Acting SEC Chairman Uyeda who has publicly claimed that the SEC's war on crypto created "confusion about what is legal” and “an environment hostile to innovation and conducive to fraud." More broadlyPresident Trump has already driven innovation and boosted job growth across the U.S. by appointing visionary leaders such as Scott BessentDavid SacksPaul Atkinsand others to key positions.

This renewed focus on collaboration and innovation will position the U.S. to play a leading role in ensuring that crypto becomes an integral part of the global financial infrastructure.

Global Regulatory Developments
In Europethe Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework officially came into effectproviding a comprehensive regulatory structure for crypto activities across EU member states. Meanwhilethe UK unveiled a detailed roadmap for crypto regulationsignaling a commitment to fostering innovationwhile maintaining robust consumer protections.

In the Asia-Pacific regioncompetition to become the region's crypto hub has intensified. Hong Kong accelerated its licensing process for virtual asset service providers (VASPs)positioning itself as a global leaderalongside Singapore. South Korea is also reevaluating its approach to cryptoreconsidering its ban on crypto ETFs amid surging investor demand. 

Finallythe Abu Dhabi Global Market’s Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) introduced a groundbreaking framework for fiat-referenced tokenslike stablecoins. Notablythis framework includes provisions for issuing yield-bearing stablecoinsa move that could redefine the role of stablecoins in traditional and decentralized finance.

Deep Dive: XRP Markets 
For this reportRipple uses market metrics from public sources including CCDataBloombergand Refinitiv Eikon.

Taking a look at XRP markets in Q4XRP volumes were elevated as average daily volumes (ADV) were at $3.4 billion on top-tier exchanges. The XRP/BTC ratio increased 130% over Q4. This is particularly significant during a time when Bitcoin reached its – at that time – all-time high of around $108,000.

Chart 1: 
XRP realized volatility mostly declined during the first half of Q4 2024touching 40% in early November. Volatility picked up after the U.S. presidential electioncontinuously increasing to year-highs of around 200% before a correction to 160% at year’s end. By November-endXRP price also reached its high water mark for the year at around $2.70an increase of more than 500% from early November. 

Table 1: Major Tokens Price and Volume (End of Q4‘24 figures)
USD prices and average trading volume reflects daily trading activity for the USD and stablecoin pairs on top tier exchanges as measured by CCData.

Chart 2: XRP Spot Exchange Volume
In early Q4daily trading volumes held steady at approximately $1 billion but dropped to around $500 million throughout October and into mid-November. Howeverfollowing Trump’s election winspot trading volumes across all exchanges saw a substantial increaseaveraging $5 billion daily from mid-November through December. This period culminated in a record-setting day on December 2with nearly $25 billion in spot volume traded across CCData’s Top Tier exchanges.

Chart 3:  XRP Spot Exchange Volume (%)
XRP volume distribution across exchanges remained relatively constant throughout the fourth quarter. After the U.S. electionU.S. exchanges like Coinbase and Kraken managed to get more shares from Bybit or Crypto.com. NeverthelessBinanceBybit and Upbit accounted for over 60% of the total traded volume.

Chart 4: Spot Traded Volume
The percentage of USD and USD stablecoin volume traded through fiat pairs increased from 14% in Q3 to 25% in Q4. The majority of XRP trading activity continues to be against USDT.

The State of the XRP Ledger (XRPL)

Ripple USD
RLUSD is available on leading global exchangesmarket makers and payment providers including UpholdBitstampBullishBitsoMoonPayIndependent ReserveMercado BitcoinCoinMENA and more.

The stablecoin market is over $220B and growing — and what’s going to continue to drive the next wave of adoption is utility. RLUSD can enable instant settlement for cross-border paymentsintegrate seamlessly with decentralized finance (DeFi) protocolsand provide collateralization for trading real-world assets like commoditiessecuritiesand treasuries on-chain. 

NotablyRipple will use RLUSD to facilitate global payments on behalf of its enterprise customers. Ripple Payments has served $70 billion in payments volume and countingand has near-global coverage with 90+ payout marketswhich represent more than 90% coverage of the daily FX markets. 

Ripple is committed to full transparency of the reserves supporting RLUSDproviding monthly reserve reports conducted by an independent licensed third-party accounting firm. 

Tokenization of Real World Assets (RWAs)
The industry continued to witness a groundswell of interest from institutions embracing real-world asset tokenization. Archaxthe first FCA regulated digital asset exchangebroker and custodianannounced its partnership with abrdnone of the UK’s largest asset managersto provide access to a money market fund tokenized on the XRP Ledger. In additionSociete Generale-FORGE (SG-FORGE) announced its intention to deploy its MiCA-compliant stablecoin EURCV on the XRP Ledger to increase adoption and drive utility around use cases like payments. 

As more institutions explore asset tokenizationthe XRP Ledger has become the blockchain of choice for RWA tokenization given its purpose-built design for fastcost-effectiveand scalable transactions. With 3-5 second settlement timesnegligible fees1,500+ TPSand built-in compliance toolsthe XRPL has attracted a growing list of partners and innovators to tokenize their assets.

Institutional DeFi on the XRPL
Last quarterRipple along with the community continued to build on the XRP Ledgerexpanding its capabilities to support the next wave of institutional DeFi innovation and projects. 

The XLS-40 amendmentintroducing Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs) to the XRP Ledgerwent live on mainnetenabling users to manage self-sovereignverifiable digital identities in line with W3C standards. In additionXRPL’s new native oracle protocol went live and is now integrated with Band Protocol and DIAproviding securereal-time data. In turnthese oracles will support pricing for various needsincluding the upcoming lending protocol (XLS-66d)the XRPL AMM (XLS-30)tokenized financial assetsand more. The multi purpose token standard received a clean audit from Softstack. MPTs enable the creation of more advanced tokens that can represent different types of assets and rights by metadata. These tokens are highly flexible driving tokenization for complex use cases.

XRPL Amendments and Process
There is a community of developersvalidatorsuniversitiesand companies that maintainimproveand build on the XRPL. New features or changes to the blockchain go through a rigorous amendment process which requires agreement from at least 80% of validators for two weeks. This ensures the security and reliability of the blockchain while adding new capabilities. More than 100 validator nodes are active on the networkoperated by universitiesexchangesbusinessesand individuals. Ripple operates only one validator on the network.

Last quarterthe reserve requirements for using the XRP Ledger changed by the collective voting of the validators. The new requirements are 1 XRP base reserve per account (down from 10 XRP)and 0.2 XRP owner reserve increment per item (down from 2 XRP). The base cost of sending a transaction (10 drops) remains unchanged.

XRPL On-Chain Activity
The XRPL experienced heightened activity across key on-chain metrics despite a slight 2.86% drop in transaction count to 167 million. The AMM featurelaunched in last Marchachieved $774.15M in swap volume Q4a significant increase from $31.23M in Q3. This growth drove on-chain DEX trading volume from $63.4M in Q3 to $1B in Q4 with AMM swaps accounting for 77% of total volume. The momentum was primarily driven by XRP’s price surge and strong adoption of First Ledgera meme token creation and trading platform integrated with Discord. 

Wallet creation soared to 709Ka substantial jump from 140K in Q3reflecting growing interest in the XRP Ledger. XRP's average closing price rose from $0.55 in Q3 to $1.43peaking at $2.80which increased network feeswith total XRP burned rising from 592K in Q3 to 724K in Q4. 

Trustlines grew from 7.3M to 7.9M in Q4indicating growth in adoption of issued tokens on-chain. Of the 600K new trustlines established during the quarter37K were attributed to Ripple-issued RLUSDhighlighting its adoption and contribution to the token ecosystem's expansion.

Note: Ripple has updated its data sources for on-chain metrics in previous Markets Reportswhich may result in slight discrepancies in reported figures.

Ripple’s XRP Holdings 
Ripple reports information about its XRP holdings at the beginning of the quarter and last day of the quarter. Its holdings fall into two categories: XRP that it currently has available in its walletsand XRP that is subject to on-ledger escrow lockups that will be released each month over the next 42 months. 

For this latter categoryRipple does not have access to that XRP until the escrow releases it to Ripple on a monthly basis. The remaining XRP released is put back into the escrow each month. 

Note: From time to timeRipple supports or transfers to third partiessuch as ETPstrustsand other investmentsXRP that Ripple reasonably expects to maintain in its holdings. When doing soa reduced amount of XRP may be returned to escrow that month. Until and unless Ripple expects such XRP to enter the broader market (throughfor examplefurther transfers to third parties)that XRP is included in “XRP Held by Ripple.”

September 302024
Total XRP Held by Ripple: 4,436,713,796
Total XRP Subject to On-Ledger Escrow: 38,900,000,005

December 312024
Total XRP Held by Ripple: 4,485,366,320 
Total XRP Subject to On-Ledger Escrow: 38,030,000,005