Ripple‘s XRP, one of the top 10 altcoins, witnessed its underlying decentralized network, the XRP Ledger (XRPL), close out 2023 with a significant increase in transactions and network activity. According to XRPScan, a ledger explorer and network analysis platform, the XRP Ledger reached record transaction levels towards the end of the year.
Data from XRPScan indicates that daily transaction counts on the XRP Ledger hit an all-time high on December 30th, with 6.8 million transactions, surpassing the previous record of nearly 5 million transactions per day in November 2021.
While the specific reason for the surge in transactions is unknown, several factors could contribute, likely stemming from the increasing utility of the XRP Ledger. Recent developments within the XRPL ecosystem might also have played a role in the rapid increase in transaction numbers.
Following the launch of a new project called “XRP Script,” aimed at embedding inscriptions on the XRP Ledger, the network saw a similar surprising jump in transactions. The release of inscriptions led to a flood of participants into the XRPL, causing daily transactions to spike from the usual 1.2 million to 4.11 million on December 26th, and the number of new daily activated accounts also surged from around 2,200 to over 20,000.
An XRPL developer, Wietse Wind, highlighted that the XRPL mainnet successfully handled a free Transactions Per Second (TPS) test without congestion, attributed to the inscriptions. Interestingly, XRPScan discovered that much of the transaction volume increase on December 26th originated from thousands of newly created accounts, directly linking the growth in transactions and network activity to the inscriptions.
According to CoinMarketCap, XRP traded at $0.6188, a 0.94% decrease over the last 24 hours. The data also shows that the altcoin’s price fell by 3.11% over the past week but rose by 0.74% over the past month.