Messari: XRPL institutional DeFi metrics surged in Q1 2026

Messari's "State of XRP" report for Q1 2026 points to a sharp pickup in XRPL's institutional DeFi activity, led by rapid growth in real-world assets and stablecoin supply. Real-world assets on the ledger rose 124% to $2.25 billion by quarter-end, making XRPL the seventh-largest RWA network at that time; Messari notes it has since moved up to fourth. Ripple's stablecoin at ethereum:0x8292bb45bf1ee4d140127049757c2e0ff06317ed expanded 45% to $340.3 million on-chain, becoming the ledger's largest stablecoin. Network usage climbed alongside these gains. Average daily transactions increased 35% to 2.48 million. U.S. spot ETF holdings of XRP inched up 1.9% to 775.4 million ripple:native, roughly 1.3% of supply, still below the 810.2 million peak recorded on March 3. Messari attributes the momentum to XRPL's growing institutional feature set, including compliance and tokenization capabilities, which it says is driving more activity onto the chain.