Or Fireworks Coming?
XRP, the sixth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, has recorded significant gains in the first quarter of 2023. Despite a drop from its yearly high of $0.590, XRP dominated the crypto market with total sales in Q1 2023 of $361.06M, net of purchases, compared to $226.31M in the previous quarter.
XRP Shines In Q1, Records Impressive Growth And Performance
According to the Q1 report by Ripple, XRP Ledger (XRPL) on-chain activity remained strong, with decentralized exchange volumes increasing by 34% to $115M in Q1 2023 versus Q4 2022. Furthermore, XRP Average Daily Volume (ADV) on centralized exchanges jumped 46% in Q1 to $1B from $698M, indicating high demand for the cryptocurrency.
While financial turmoil dominated the markets in Q1 of 2023, the token recorded a 46% increase in volumes compared to the previous quarter, according to the report. This increase can be attributed to market recovery and large volatile events spike volumes.
Furthermore, according to the data released by Ripple, the XRPL’s on-chain activity remained strong in Q1 2023. The total number of transactions increased to 116,341,516, up from 106,429,153 in the previous quarter. The average cost per transaction (in XRP) also increased slightly to 0.00121 from 0.00096 in Q4 2022, while the average cost per transaction was $0.000484.
In addition, the XRPL burned 140,993 tokens for transaction fees in Q1 2023, reflecting an increase from the previous quarter. The average XRP closing price during the period was $0.40, slightly lower than the previous quarter’s $0.42.
The XRPL’s decentralized exchange (DEX) volumes also increased in Q1 2023, with $114,567,441 traded on DEX, up from $85,772,947 in the previous quarter. The number of trust lines remained stable at 8,317,321, while the number of new wallets created was 140,558.
Moreover, The XRP Ledger’s on-chain activity remains robust, with Ripple’s latest report revealing that transactions increased by 9% in Q1 2023 to 116 million, compared to 106 million in the previous quarter. NFTs have emerged as a key driver of activity, with over one million assets minted on the Ledger since XLS-20 went live on the mainnet.
Rising Above The Rest
The report also notes that due to the recent banking crisis, Ripple temporarily stopped purchasing XRP for several days due to the disruption. However, the company has since resumed purchases and plans to continue purchasing XRP as ODL (On-Demand Liquidity) adoption grows.
In addition, during Q1 2023, three billion XRP were released out of escrow, with one billion released each month, in line with prior quarters and the official escrow arrangement. Of the three billion XRP, 2.1 billion were returned and subsequently put into new escrow contracts throughout the quarter, ensuring the stability and predictability of XRP’s supply.
At the time of writing, XRP is trading at $0.4640, representing a decline of 2.5% over the past 24 hours. In the wider time frames, XRP is experiencing a downturn, with 5%, 8%, and 3% decreases in the seven-day, fourteen-day, and 30-day timeframes, respectively.
Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView.com
