By the end of Q3, XRP, the native token of the XRP Ledger (XRPL), solidified its position as the seventh-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, reaching approximately $34.7 billion.
This represents a significant increase of 31.1% in circulating market capitalization quarter-over-quarter (QoQ) compared to Q2. The price of XRP also saw a notable increase of 28.5% during the same period.
However, with the recent victory of President-elect Donald Trump and a clearer regulatory outlook in the United States, these metrics are no longer sufficient, with the price surge in the past three weeks being the largest in nearly seven years.
XRP experienced a 94% increase in daily transactions.
Research firm Messari and the company's Q3 report indicate that recent momentum may be due to several key developments. Most notably, asset management firm Grayscale launched XRP Trust in September, providing accredited investors with a new way to access XRP.
This development, along with the S-1 filings of exchange-traded fund (ETF) issuers Bitwise, Canary, 21Shares, and WisdomTree to launch XRP ETFs in recent months, highlights the growing institutional interest in this token.
In Q3, several key network metrics reversed previous declines. Average daily transactions surged 94% quarter-over-quarter, reaching 1.7 million, while new addresses increased by 10% to 105,000.
However, this increase is mainly due to small transactions (transactions involving less than 1 XRP), which Ripple's report notes are associated with spam messaging campaigns. Notably, the increase in these new addresses contrasts with a 34% year-over-year decline in new addresses on a quarterly basis from Q3 2023 to Q2 2024.
Although certain metrics have seen an increase, the total number of active addresses decreased by 3% quarter-over-quarter, due to a 20% decline in active sending addresses, while the number of unique receiving addresses increased by 7%.
Prices are nearing the record high from 2018.
Payment transactions also showed significant growth, increasing by 110% quarter-over-quarter after experiencing a decline in the previous two quarters. This surge followed a substantial spike related to registration activities that began in late 2023.
In addition to payment transactions, NFT-related activities on XRPL also saw notable changes. Minting and burning transactions for NFTs increased by 93% and 148%, respectively, while NFT creation and sale acceptance transactions saw a slight decline.
Nevertheless, delving deeper into the Q4 data, XRP has seen the most significant upward trend in years, with market capitalization soaring nearly $130 billion in just three weeks, becoming the third-largest digital asset in the market, behind only Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH).
Its price has clearly followed that trend, with a massive 432% increase in the past few weeks to the current trading price of $2.71 per token, nearing the record high of $3.040 achieved during the 2018 bull run, and now only about a 20% gap between the current price and the all-time high.
Overall, data from Q3 and part of Q4 indicate a picture of the XRP ecosystem that is growing and evolving, characterized by increased trading activity, institutional interest, and a commitment to improving XRP's value proposition.