All about how XRP fared in Q4 2023

• XRPL’s average daily transactions saw a 22.7% jump QoQ.
• XRP’s price surged 19.3% over the previous quarter.

The payment-focused network Ripple [XRP Ledger] witnessed a sharp surge in activity across key verticals in Q4 2023, according to a report published by blockchain analytics firm Messari.

Transactions jump due to inscriptions

One of the biggest takeaways was a 22.7% jump in average daily transactions on a quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) basis. This was majorly attributed to a sharp spike in payments in December for inscriptions-related activity.

Indeed, more than 22 million payments were registered over the span of one week in late December. As a result, the dominance of payments as a transaction type shot up to 35% in Q4.

Source: Messari

Active addresses plunge

However, the report noted that the jump in Payment transactions did not result in a spike in active addresses on the XRPL. The average daily active addresses fell sharply by 31% in Q4.

The disparity arose as bulk of the transaction activity was confined to a small group of accounts sending transactions to one single account. Hence, while the number of sending addresses increased, there was a sharp drop in recipient addresses.

Source: Messari

On the brighter side, XRPL’s network growth looked promising with a 31.5% jump in new addresses. Additionally, the total number of accounts increased by 3.7% to 5 million, an important milestone for the network.

NFT mints soar but DEX volumes dip

The surge in Q4 transactions was also due to increase in non-fungible token (NFT) mints.

As shown below, mints nearly saw a sixfold increase in Q4, causing the overall NFT transactions to rise by 169%. Moreover, mints made up 83% of all NFT transactions.

Source: Messari

In contrast, XRPL’s average daily decentralized exchange (DEX) volume plunged by 78.7% QoQ to $562,000. Having said that, the dominance of the vertical vis-à-vis the NFT sector could be understood by the below illustration.

Source: Messari

The state of XRP

Shifting focus to the blockchain’s native token XRP, the price surged 19.3% over the previous quarter, while the market cap increased 21% QoQ. According to the research, this was a substantial lag compared to the overall market gain of 53.8%.

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At the time of writing, XRP was the sixth-largest crypto by market cap, exchanging hands at $0.52, AMBCrypto spotted using CoinMarketCap.

Short-term blips aside, the digital asset has given returns of 36% to its holders over the past year, helped in part by its partial victory against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.