$XRP price grinds higher as $XRP Ledger stablecoin velocity hits a 1-year peak, signaling rising real payment activity behind the price action.
- $XRP price trades near $1.48 with flat intraday moves but firming market cap and liquidity.
- Stablecoin stock on XRPL is around $425M, with transfers near $1.2B over 30 days, lifting velocity.
- Rising throughput, fee burn, and collateral demand improve $XRP’s medium-term price setup despite wider market stress.
$XRP price and market snapshot
As of Feb. 18, $XRP ($XRP) is trading around $1.48, with 24‑hour moves roughly flat to slightly positive (about +0.1% to +0.7% depending on venue).
Data shows $XRP at $1.48 with a 24‑hour change of +0.11%, a circulating supply near 60.92 billion tokens and a market cap close to $89.96 billion. CoinMarketCap and other trackers broadly confirm a 24‑hour volume in the $2.2–$2.4 billion range and total $XRP supply of roughly 100 billion.
For context, Bitcoin trades near $67,900, down about 0.8–0.9% on the day, on more than $33 billion in 24‑hour volume. Ethereum changes hands around $1,998–$2,000, up about 0.5% over the last 24 hours, with spot volume near $2.7 billion.
Velocity on XRPL: capital actually moving
Stablecoin value is accruing to the $XRP Ledger, and relatively fast. Roughly $425 million in stablecoins now sit on XRPL, up 6.6% over the 30 days ending Feb. 12, with Ripple’s RLUSD accounting for about 83% of that pool. In monetary terms, that base is the ledger’s “money stock.”
#$XRP News: Is #Ripple Payments Quietly Becoming the New SWIFT? Top Crypto Executive Jake Boyle Explains.
— TheCryptoBasic (@thecryptobasic) February 18, 2026
Ripple Payments is emerging as a faster alternative to legacy bank rails like SWIFT.
Caleb & Brown’s CCO Jake Boyle says the firm now processes hundreds of USD withdrawals… pic.twitter.com/7QEf1Q5oNG
The more important signal for price, however, is velocity. According to one analyst, “Stablecoin transfers rising can often be an even more informative piece of information than stablecoin supply rising, because it hints that people are actually moving money rather than just parking it.” Over the last 30 days, XRPL processed around $1.2 billion in stablecoin transfer volume, a 57.5% jump that the author calls “a huge surge in volume, to say the least.”
In macro terms, you have a growing stock ($425 million in stablecoins) turning over faster ($1.2 billion in transfers), meaning each unit of capital is circulating multiple times a month. That rising throughput supports fee burn, forces participants to hold $XRP as reserve collateral, and tends to anchor speculative rallies in actual payment activity rather than pure narrative.
Implications for $XRP price path
The $XRP Ledger (XRPL) is getting used for what it was built to do. In other words, velocity is laying the rails before price tries to break out. Higher payments flow can attract more businesses and developers to build on the ledger, and they’ll need to buy and hold some $XRP to do so, while more activity means more $XRP is being used to pay transaction fees.
Still, does this mean you should drop $2,000 into $XRP today? For traders used to beta‑chasing, the message is blunt: watch the velocity and on‑chain cash flow first; the sustainable leg higher in $XRP likely comes only once that fundamental usage persists through the current drawdown.