XRP, Ripple’s native cryptocurrency, saw a significant surge in activity and utility in August, according to recent data from Santiment, a blockchain analytics platform. This development comes amid Ripple’s legal battle with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
According to Santiment, the on-chain transaction volume on the XRP network reached an all-time high of 4.8 billion tokens, with circulation also hitting a record of 2.03 billion.
#XRP is seeing major utility spikes to start the month. In addition to today's milestone highs in #onchain transaction volume (4.8B $XRP) and circulation (2.03B $XRP), the development activity for the 5th largest cap asset in #crypto is up big as well. https://t.co/AdWcrUun9n pic.twitter.com/QHQ6U8Q0J5
— Santiment (@santimentfeed) September 1, 2023
Positive metrics are attributed to Ripple’s victory against the SEC
Positive metrics can be largely attributed to the enthusiasm of major XRP holders, commonly known as “whales,” who have increased their holdings over the past few months in anticipation of a Ripple victory against the SEC to demonstrate that XRP should not be considered a security.
As of July 20, 2023, 221 addresses held between 10 million and 1,000 million XRP, totalling 16.13 billion XRP, valued at approximately $8.71 billion at $0.56 per coin.
Additionally, Santiment reported a significant increase in development activity surrounding XRP, indicating strong adoption by developers.
As recently reported by ZyCrypto, Ripple’s Chief Legal Officer, Stuart Alderoty, has asserted that the SEC is facing legal difficulties not only in the Ripple case but also in various other lawsuits against them, including the recent ruling that favoured Grayscale in their pursuit of a spot Bitcoin ETF.
“The SEC is getting battered in the court. In our case it’s been proven wrong, been called hypocritical, lacking faithful allegiance to the law, fined for discovery abuses and now another distinguished court saying it’s ‘arbitrary and capricious’ – that’s a really big deal.”
XRP is on the cusp of achieving widespread adoption
While XRP’s price has slightly recovered above $0.52, it still lags far behind its all-time high of $3.84 in early 2018 during the Bitcoin rally.
It is no secret that XRP’s prolonged bear market is largely, if not entirely, due to the SEC’s lawsuit against Ripple initiated in December 2020.
However, in July, Ripple scored a partial victory when Judge Analisa Torres ruled that XRP is not a security under U.S. securities laws. This has greatly assisted the centralized payment-focused coin in resuming its glory days when it competed closely with Tether’s stablecoin, USDT.
So, despite the regulatory cloud looming over the SEC case, XRP is demonstrating a genuine increase in its utility, driven by heightened interest from major whales. Will XRP once again lead the top 5 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization?
