On August 13, $XRP was trading near the $1 mark — its lowest level since November 2024 and approximately 69% below the January 2025 peak of around $3.30, while on-chain activity increased despite the sharp price drop. Analysis by Santiment showed a sharp rise in the number of active addresses in August, while the number of new addresses remained virtually unchanged compared to July.
Amid favorable regulatory developments, $XRP climbed even higher in July 2025, reaching a new peak of around $3.65. The summer rally briefly pushed its market capitalization above $200 billion, cementing its status as one of the most profitable assets of that period.
"On August 12, the price closed at ~$1.00 — its lowest daily close since November 2024 and approximately 69% below the January 2025 peak of around $3.30," writes Santiment, illustrating how much the asset has fallen during the prolonged decline. The company added:
"Activity, however, has increased. In August, the average daily number of active addresses was about 35,700 compared to approximately 26,400 in July, which is a third higher, with August 11 being the most active day since June 5."
This calculation reflects market dynamics, not network health, and the simultaneous increase in address activity does not provide direct evidence that more intensive use of the blockchain can reverse the price trend.
This data indicates that activity on the $XRP ledger increased without a comparable rise in newly created addresses. This pattern allows for a more narrow conclusion than claims of broad adoption: engagement with the ledger intensified throughout August, while available metrics showed virtually no growth in the number of new addresses.
Address Data Shows Activity Without Growth in Account Numbers
From August 1 to 12, the average daily number of active addresses was about 35,700, compared to approximately 26,400 throughout the entire month of July, representing an increase of nearly 35%. Santiment defines the daily number of active addresses as unique addresses participating in transactions during a day, making this metric an indicator of network usage, not a direct count of people.
In August, the number of new addresses averaged about 2,260 per day, almost matching the July figure of 2,270, although August 11 saw the highest number of active addresses since June 5. This gap highlights the limitations of public blockchain data: address activity does not directly equate to unique users.
Data on large holders reflects another form of activity during the downturn, although it measures account balances rather than the number of new participants or transaction frequency. Analysis from August 12 showed that the number of $XRP wallets holding at least 1 million tokens increased by 32 over three months, while the token's market capitalization fell by 29% over the same period.
Institutional Investor Access Grows, While Adoption Data Remains Mixed
Corporate use cases also remain separate from Santiment's August address data and cannot explain the short-term increase without transaction-level attribution. Anodos Finance co-founder and CEO Panos Mekras characterized $XRP as a treasury and payment asset, stating that his company has been buying, holding, and using $XRP for employee payments since 2023.
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse separately outlined institutional opportunities in sectors that process about $16 trillion in annual payments and clearing. Garlinghouse noted that the share of digital assets in these flows is close to zero, presenting this figure as a potential market reach, not as a volume of completed $XRP transactions.
Regulated derivatives have expanded professional investors' access to $XRP, even as the token's spot price remains under pressure. CME Group launched continuous cryptocurrency trading with Ripple Prime as the clearing and funding partner, and open interest for $XRP futures previously exceeded $1 billion within a three-month period.
Events in the institutional investor, treasury operations, and large wallet spheres demonstrate several channels of engagement with $XRP, yet none allow the conversion of August's growth in active addresses into confirmed data on the number of new users. Santiment's average daily new address figure provides the clearest insight: up to August 12, approximately 2,260 new addresses appeared daily, about 10 fewer than the corresponding July average. At the time of writing, $XRP is trading at $1.008.
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