XRPL Activity Plunges 50–80% After XLS-81 Launch as Analyst Weighs XRP Price Impact

On February 23, analyst Arthur reported that visible XRP Ledger activity has dropped between 50% and 80% in recent weeks, with active tagged users, payment volume, and sending accounts all sharply lower. He linked the decline to the February 18 activation of XLS-81, which enables permissioned institutional trading that does not show on public dashboards, and argued that this may mask underlying demand. XRP is trading around $1.39 with double-digit percentage losses over the past month and year, while on-chain loss metrics and valuation ratios from Santiment present mixed longer-term signals.