XRP Ledger (XRPL) has just experienced one of its biggest crashes this year, as on-chain data shows that activity on the Ripple blockchain has dropped by 99%. While this may seem like a big red flag, the decline has yet to have a major impact The highest value of XRPwhich suggests that the situation may not be as shocking as it seems.
Overview of Ripple’s XRP Ledger 99% Crash
Over the weekend, XRP Ledger’s transaction activity plummeted, dropping nearly 99% within 48 hours. On closer inspection, the decline appears to be primarily due to time rather than any major factor technical issue in the book. Generally, cryptocurrency trading prices drop on weekends. This is because many institutional traders and market makers reduce their trading or stop trading altogether on weekends, resulting in less expensive capital and a lower settlement rate on the ledger.
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Notably, on-chain data from XRPScans it was revealed that the exchange volume of XRPL between accounts decreased from more than 1.09 billion on Thursday, January 8, to 166.99 million on Saturday. This is a great representation decrease in network usageshowing how much work can be done over the weekend. Payment volume is also still recovering, falling to around 137.40 million as of January 11.
In addition to the drop in volume, the number of transactions made on the XRP Ledger during that time was also reduced. XRPScans showed that transactions are down from over 2 million on Thursday to 1.8 million on Saturday. This decrease in both volume and referrals shows that even a small reduction in the participation of large accounts or institutional users can significantly affect network metrics.
It is noteworthy that XRP price is still trading above $2 and remains somewhat unaffected by the recent decline in network activity. Although CoinMarketCap data shows its value has dropped more than 4% in the past week, there is no clear evidence linking this to the recent 99% drop in the ledger.
Interestingly, a few days before the crash, the XRP Ledger recorded a high increased whaling tradeeach worth $100,000 or more. This suggests that, despite the temporary fluctuations of the network, the XRP network continues to have great activity and involvement from the main authorities.
XRPL Developer Shares New Ledger Update
Vet, a validator and developer of XRPL dUNL, has it shared a new update on the XRP Ledger, revealing that a bunch of corrections and amendmentss is now close to its activation time. This marks an important step for the blockchain network, which promises to improve the performance and security of developers and users.
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Vet said the upcoming changes include several key features, including TokenEscrow, AMMClawback, Multi-Purpose Tokens (MPT), and Price Oracle. He emphasized that the XRP development team is still committed to keeping the book up to date. He added that the team is working hard to ensure that all features are working properly, apart from the current market price of XRP.
Featured image from Freepik, chart from Tradingview.com
