- Memecoin trading is surging on Ripple's XRP Ledger blockchain.
- The activity is still small compared to Solana, which has become synonymous with memecoins.
DeFi investors are piling into Ripple’s nascent DeFi ecosystem in search of memecoin riches.
It’s all happening on XRP Ledger — or XRPL — Ripple’s answer to rival public blockchains like Ethereum and Solana.
Magnetic, a website that lets users swap tokens through XRPL’s built-in decentralised exchange, posted $57 million in trading over the past 24 hours.
That’s a whopping 2,000% increase from the $2.6 million in trading volume on December 1, according to Cryptoquant data.
Amid the trading frenzy, the number of active accounts, or wallets, on XRPL for the first time surpassed 100,000.
Among the most-traded tokens on XRPL are several so-called memecoins — joke tokens that trade almost entirely on their popularity.
XRP memecoins
Like on other blockchains, many memecoins on XRPL share a connection to Ripple and its community.
A token named XRP Army, which aims to become a reference currency within the Ripple ecosystem, soared to a $100 million market value in a matter of hours before falling some 61%.
Another, named Ripples, says its creators are developing a mobile game, and trades at an $11 million market value.
The memecoin trading activity on XRPL is still small compared to Solana, which has become synonymous with memecoins over the past year.
In November, weekly decentralised exchange volume on Solana topped $40 billion as memecoins on the network surged.
Top Solana memecoins include Dogwifhat, Bonk, and Popcat, which all trade at market values in the billions.
New uses
While XRPL’s main use case is currently memecoins, that could soon change.
Ripple is soon expected to receive approval from the New York Department of Financial Services to launch its RLUSD stablecoin.
The dollar-pegged token, which aims to challenge market leaders like Tether’s USDT and Circle’s USDC, will be available on both XRPL and Ethereum.
If Ripple’s new stablecoin can match a fraction of USDT’s $134 billion circulating supply, it could kickstart DeFi activity on XRPL.
Another fledgling sector: tokenised versions of stocks, bonds, and other assets.
Investors have so far poured $5 million into tokenised US Treasury bonds issued by OpenEden on XRPL.
XRP’s rise
The increase in XRPL use comes as Ripple’s XRP token surges to a multi-year high.
It’s up 77% over the past month as Bitcoin hovers just below the $100,000 price milestone.
Arthur Azizov, CEO of crypto payment provider B2BInPay, told DL News that the digital asset issued by Ripple could break its $3.40 all-time high before the end of the year.
Tim Craig is DL News’ Edinburgh-based DeFi Correspondent. Reach out with tips at tim@dlnews.com.
