Ripple experienced remarkable growth in the third quarter. The company saw an increase in trading volume on the XRP Ledger and increased institutional interest in the XRP token.
These developments came as the company continues its lawsuit with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Ripple's XRP, Surging Volume Draws Institutional Interest
Ripple revealed in a report that the weakening of the SEC's credibility has led to increased institutional interest in XRP. Several major financial firms, including the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), introduced new XRP products during the quarter. CME published an XRP reference price, and Bitnomic announced plans for an XRP futures product.
Additionally, leading companies such as Bitwise, Canary, and 21Shares have filed for XRP-focused exchange-traded funds (ETFs). And Grayscale has introduced an XRP Trust, alongside efforts to convert its Digital Large Cap Fund, which includes BTC, ETH, SOL, XRP, AVAX, into an ETF.
Read more: XRP ETF Guide: What Are They and How Do They Work?
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse noted that these filings demonstrate strong institutional demand for XRP products. According to him, the SEC's ongoing challenges in cryptocurrency regulation have weakened their position, further diminishing their influence on the industry.
"The message in the market is clear — institutional interest in XRP products is stronger than ever...The SEC's war on crypto continues to be a losing battle — their persistent disregard for their own legal authority will only further erode the SEC's credibility and reputation," Garlinghouse said.
Meanwhile, the increased institutional interest has led to higher XRP trading volumes. The average daily volume (ADV) on major exchanges was between $600 million and $700 million, and the XRP/BTC ratio increased by 27% during the quarter. Ripple explained that in the early part of the third quarter, trading on Binance, Bybit, and Upbit averaged $750 million, stabilizing in the mid-quarter and then increasing again on the last day of September.
Additionally, the transaction volume on the XRP Ledger network nearly doubled during this period. According to the report, the network's total transaction volume increased from 86.4 million in the second quarter to 172.6 million in the third quarter. Ripple noted that this increase was primarily driven by low-value transactions (less than 1 XRP), which are likely part of spam campaigns.
"Despite the increase in activity, the majority of transactions were low-value (< 1 XRP), so the overall on-chain volume did not increase significantly. The increase was primarily driven by low-value transactions (< 1 XRP) that appear to be part of spam messaging campaigns," Ripple explained.
Read more: Ripple (XRP) Price Prediction 2024/2025/2030
Additionally, Ripple's automated market maker (AMM) total value locked (TVL) more than doubled, increasing from $8.5 million to $16.2 million during this period. However, the network's average transaction cost decreased, with fees dropping 32% from 0.00394 XRP to 0.00269 XRP per transaction.
