The Big Gap Between XRP’s Fame and Its Small Earnings

XRP has climbed to the top ranks of cryptocurrencies with a massive market value nearing $71 billion. But here’s the strange part: its supporting network, XRP Ledger, hasn’t made much money at all. In fact, it only collected around $119, 000 in fees this year. Last year and the year before, it did a little better—earning $2. 35 million and $1. 41 million respectively—but those numbers are still tiny compared to what the network is worth. Things get even more surprising when you look at how little activity is happening inside the system. The money locked up in its finance projects has dropped hard, from $120 million down to just $40 million. Meanwhile, Ethereum’s locked funds sit at $37 billion, showing how far behind XRP Ledger has fallen. The only bright spot? Stablecoins on the network have grown, with Ripple USD now worth over $760 million on its own. When combined with other networks, that number jumps to $1. 6 billion.

Another area where XRP Ledger is making progress is in tokenized real-world assets, like property or stocks turned into digital tokens. The value here has risen to over $3. 6 billion, and daily transfers have shot up by 132%, now sitting at $106 million. Still, these wins don’t match the hype surrounding XRP itself. The price of XRP has crashed, dropping 70% from its peak last year. Experts say this might be because Ripple Labs, the company closely tied to XRP, has been cut off from some key partnerships. Investors are also pulling money out of crypto and putting it into stocks, especially as AI stocks keep rising.

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