The XRP network achieved a historic milestone in 2025, with its annual payment volume surging to a record $617.19 billion, according to data from Dune Analytics. This figure represents a staggering 138% increase from the $259 billion recorded in 2024 and marks the highest annual volume ever recorded for the network.
The growth signals a strong recovery for the XRP ecosystem, which had faced years of slow growth and legal challenges. Volumes had declined to $234 billion in 2022 and $174 billion in 2023 before beginning to rebound in 2024. A key strength highlighted is the network's low fee structure; despite processing over $617 billion, the XRP Ledger (XRPL) generated only $2 million in total fees for the year. On average, users paid just $0.32 per $100,000 transacted.
Ripple's stablecoin, RLUSD, played a significant role in this expansion. Launched in December 2024, RLUSD contributed $1.87 billion in payment volume and $1.37 billion in order book trading on the XRPL decentralized exchange (DEX) during 2025. By year's end, over 33,000 unique wallets had used RLUSD for payments, and its market cap grew over 1,800% to $1.38 billion.
Concurrently, asset manager 21Shares has published a research note framing 2026 as a "defining turning point" for XRP, arguing its valuation is now anchored in institutional fundamentals following the August 2025 settlement of the SEC lawsuit. The firm notes that U.S. spot XRP ETFs have "fundamentally rewritten" XRP's demand profile, amassing over $1.3 billion in assets under management in their first month with a 55-day streak of consecutive inflows.
21Shares outlines three price scenarios for 2026: a base case of $2.45 (50% probability), a bull case of $2.69 (30%), and a bear case of $1.60. The analysis highlights that exchange reserves are at a seven-year low of 1.7 billion XRP, suggesting a supply squeeze as institutional ETF demand meets a holding retail community. However, the firm also cautions about execution risks, noting that XRPL trails rivals in developer engagement and faces competition for real-world asset (RWA) tokenization from networks like Solana.
