The XRP Ledger has reached a significant milestone, with small wallet addresses holding under 100 XRP hitting a record 5.66 million. This growth in retail participation comes alongside a notable decline in the number of large holders, creating a divergence that analysts are watching closely.
Data from Santiment, covering March 2025 through March 2026, tracks wallet counts across three size categories. The small wallet tier (under 100 XRP) has shown consistent upward growth, accelerating to its current record high. This growth has occurred independently of XRP's price action, which has declined significantly from its early 2025 highs to a current range between $1.40 and $1.50.
The mid-tier category, holding between 100 and 100,000 XRP, remains stable at approximately 2.01 million wallets, showing a slight upward trend. In stark contrast, the large wallet category (over 100,000 XRP) has declined. Represented by 32,054 addresses, this tier's count has trended lower, particularly from late 2025 onward as the price also moved lower.
The divergence between the rising small wallet line and the declining large wallet line is the most analytically significant aspect of the data. This pattern suggests two possible dynamics: either new retail participants are entering the network at lower prices, or existing large holders are distributing their holdings into multiple smaller addresses. The data alone cannot distinguish between these scenarios.
The decline in large wallets (each worth approximately $144,000 at current prices) indicates that major holders are either selling positions below the threshold, consolidating into even larger addresses, or moving XRP off-chain to exchange custody. The combination of record retail growth and declining large holder counts is consistent with on-chain distribution patterns, where supply flows from large holders to retail buyers.
Despite price pressure, the XRP Ledger's total active address base is growing, with 7.69 million wallets across all tiers. This represents broader adoption of the ledger for holding and transacting XRP. Analysts note that XRP faces a technically important decision in the $1.44 to $1.55 range, with a breakout above $1.55 seen as necessary for a meaningful recovery. A near-term regulatory catalyst also looms, with an SEC XRP ETF application deadline on March 27.
