On-chain data reveals a significant divergence between network activity and price performance for the XRP Ledger. Daily successful transactions have surged approximately 40% from recent lows, reaching nearly 2.5 million per day as of late February 2026. This level of throughput is near the highest recorded over the past year, marking a clear breakout from the previous range of 1.3 million to 1.8 million daily transactions observed for much of the prior year.
This surge in network usage is occurring while the price of XRP continues to face technical weakness, trading below key moving averages and remaining far from its previous highs near $3. Analysts, including DustyBC Crypto and Diana, highlight that this divergence suggests the transaction growth is being driven by real network usage rather than short-term speculative trading. The increase has been sustained over several consecutive days, indicating it is not merely a temporary spike.
Further analysis of participation metrics adds nuance to the story. While transaction counts are rising sharply, new address creation has remained relatively stable, averaging between 3,000 to 5,000 new accounts per day. This pattern suggests that existing participants are conducting more transactions per account, rather than a massive influx of new retail users. This could reflect increased application usage, institutional transfers, or automated flows on the ledger, which supports decentralized exchange functions, token issuance, and automated market maker activity.
The sustained high throughput, now positioning the XRP Ledger among higher-throughput public blockchains, has intensified scrutiny of the network's underlying fundamentals. Market observers are now closely monitoring whether this growth in real-world usage can persist and potentially shift broader market dynamics for XRP in the future.