XRP liquidity deepened during the second quarter of 2026 as order-book activity grew sharply, even as retail participation weakened across the broader cryptocurrency sector. Order-book volume rose 79% while fewer accounts handled larger trades, pointing to a sharper concentration of daily exchange activity on the ledger. At the same time, RLUSD balances reached $539 million, rising 642% year over year as XRPL increased its share of total RLUSD balances to 34% during the quarter.

Order-Book Trading Shifts Toward Larger Flows

In an X post, ALLINCRYPTO flagged Evernorth's report before its release. The post cited a 79% annual rise in order-book volume and noted that trading per active account nearly tripled during Q2.

Order-book trading averaged 3.57 million XRP daily during the quarter, up 79% from approximately 1.99 million XRP previously. Meanwhile, active order-book accounts declined from 1,864 to 1,111 daily. Average trading per active account climbed from 1,072 XRP to 3,217 XRP.

The order book represented 81% of DEX trading during Q2, compared with a share of 54% one year earlier. This concentration points toward larger trading flows within the ledger's exchange activity. The figures do not specify what types of participants are involved, which could reflect the influence of professional traders, market makers, or automated traders. For traders, deeper order-book liquidity matters because it is the mechanism through which larger trades can be executed on the ledger's native decentralized exchange with tighter spreads and less slippage, a structural feature that has historically distinguished XRPL's built-in DEX from automated-market-maker designs common on other networks.

RLUSD Growth Adds Depth Across XRPL

Overall DEX trading averaged 4.42 million XRP daily during Q2, representing approximately 20% annual growth for ledger-based exchange activity. Sequentially, however, total trading fell 16% from Q1. The Q1 comparison reflects unusually heavy trading during February, so the quarterly decline provides context for the annual increase. The report presents both movements within its assessment of changing activity.

RLUSD, the US dollar-denominated stablecoin issued by Ripple, averaged $539 million in balances during Q2, compared with $73 million previously — 642% annual growth without a down quarter. The value moved through RLUSD increased 925% over the same period. XRPL's share of total RLUSD balances rose from 20% to 34%, meaning that roughly a third of the stablecoin's supply now circulates on its original issuing ledger rather than on other chains where it has been deployed.

Meanwhile, the entire industry's stablecoin volume decreased for the first time since 2023, meaning the ledger recorded stronger RLUSD growth during a broader stablecoin contraction — a divergence that stood out in a quarter when the sector's aggregate stablecoin activity contracted rather than expanded.

Infrastructure developments also advanced. A tokenized US Treasury fund settled its asset leg on-ledger, with the redemption process completing in under five seconds. Ethereum-style smart contracts also moved onto actively maintained sidechain software, part of XRPL's broader effort to add programmability that its base layer historically lacked.

Retail Activity Weakens Amid Broader Market Changes

The ledger averaged 16,587 daily transacting accounts during Q2. New accounts averaged 2,783 daily, with both measures down roughly 25%. Across blockchains, on-chain exchange volume fell 46% over the same period, and transaction fees across seven major programmable networks declined 38% — a trend that extended beyond XRPL during the quarter. The pattern of shrinking account counts alongside growing per-account volume suggests the quarter's activity growth was carried by a smaller, more heavily trading base of participants rather than by broadening retail adoption.

U.S. spot XRP ETFs recorded $273 million of inflows during Q2, with net inflows remaining positive across April, May, and June. Regulatory developments also progressed. An OCC rule became effective April 1 concerning national trust bank activities, addressing custody and other non-fiduciary activities without targeting digital assets. The CLARITY Act advanced from the Senate Banking Committee on May 14 — part of a wider congressional effort to establish clearer federal frameworks for digital asset market structure, an area market participants have long cited as a source of uncertainty.

A protocol amendment strengthened permissioned domains and multi-purpose tokens, and RLUSD expanded across multiple blockchain networks during Q2. These developments arrived alongside permissioned trading venues activating in February, features aimed at institutions that require compliance controls not available on fully open networks.

XRP trades around $1.37 as of September 3, 2026, according to current market data, which places daily trading volume above $2 billion. The token remains closely watched alongside changes in ledger liquidity and trading structure. The quarter combined deeper order-book activity with fewer active accounts, while RLUSD growth added another layer of dollar-denominated liquidity across the ledger — even as retail participation weakened across XRPL and the wider crypto markets. The trajectory of ETF inflows, the CLARITY Act's further progress through Congress, and whether RLUSD's on-ledger share continues to rise are among the developments market observers are tracking heading into the second half of the year.