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Does XRP Really Have Any Utility in 2026 and Who Uses It?

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Does XRP Really Have Any Utility in 2026 and Who Uses It?

Few cryptocurrencies are as polarizing as XRP. Critics across the crypto and DeFi ecosystem often claim XRP has no real utility. They argue it exists mainly as a speculative asset with limited real-world use. 

At the same time, XRP maintains one of the largest and most vocal communities in crypto – The XRP Army. They believe the altcoin will eventually power global financial infrastructure.

The truth sits somewhere between those two extremes. XRP does have real utility, but its usage is more specific and narrower than many assume.

XRP is More Unique Than Any Other Cryptocurrency

XRP is the native token of the XRP Ledger, launched in 2012 with a clear purpose: enabling fast and efficient cross-border payments. 

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Unlike Bitcoin, which focuses on decentralized value storage, or Ethereum, which focuses on programmable smart contracts, XRP was designed primarily to move money between financial systems quickly and cheaply.

Transactions on the XRP Ledger settle in about three to five seconds and cost a fraction of a cent. This makes XRP particularly efficient as a bridge currency, allowing instant conversion between two different fiat currencies without requiring banks or payment providers to hold large reserves in foreign accounts.

Millions Hold XRP — But Most Usage Comes From Traders and Infrastructure

Retail investors make up the largest group of XRP users today. As of early 2025, the XRP Ledger had roughly 6 to 7 million funded accounts, which represent wallets holding XRP. 

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After adjusting for exchange custody and users holding multiple wallets, analysts estimate around 2 to 3 million individuals globally actually hold XRP.

XRP Ledger Stats as of February 19, 2026. Source: XRP Scan

Crypto exchanges are another major user. Platforms such as Binance, Bitstamp, Kraken, and Uphold use XRP for liquidity management and transfers. 

XRP’s speed and low cost make it an efficient tool for moving funds between exchanges and managing trading liquidity.

Payment providers also represent a key real-world use case. Companies like SBI Remit in Japan and Tranglo in Southeast Asia use XRP through Ripple’s On-Demand Liquidity system to facilitate international remittances. 

In these cases, XRP acts as a temporary bridge asset, allowing money to move across borders instantly without pre-funded foreign accounts.

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SBI Remit and Ripple Partnership. Source: Ripple

Banks Use Ripple Technology, But Only Select Partners Actually Use XRP

Banks, however, present a more nuanced picture. Major financial institutions including Santander, Standard Chartered, and Bank of America have used Ripple’s payment infrastructure. 

But most of them use Ripple’s messaging and settlement software without directly using XRP itself. Only select payment providers, rather than global banks broadly, use XRP directly for liquidity.

Beyond financial transfers, XRP also plays an essential technical role within its own network. Every XRP Ledger account must hold XRP, and all transactions require XRP to pay network fees. 

XRP supports decentralized trading, token issuance, and asset transfers on the ledger.

So, XRP is neither useless nor universally adopted. Its utility exists in specific financial infrastructure roles, particularly in liquidity provisioning and payment settlement. 

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Understanding who actually uses XRP reveals a clearer picture—one grounded in real-world function rather than speculation.

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RootData’s project claiming feature lifts transparency scores and traffic

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Coin Center presses Senate to keep dev protections in BRCA bill

RootData’s project claiming lets teams verify and manage profiles, lifting transparency scores over 30% and driving a 220% jump in heat and visibility across 220+ partners.

Summary

  • RootData says more than 20 well‑known projects, including Bitway, Flock, Morph, and Solv, have claimed their profiles in the past week.
  • Certified projects that complete information updates see average transparency scores jump over 30%, driving a 220% surge in RootData “heat value” and visibility.
  • Over 120 projects have now been certified, gaining direct control over tokenomics, investor and team data, and syndication to more than 220 downstream data partners.

Web3 asset data platform RootData reports that adoption of its project claiming feature is accelerating, with more than 20 recognizable names — including infrastructure and DeFi projects like Bitway, Flock, Morph, and Solv — formally “settling in” over the past seven days. As the company notes in its latest update, projects that complete the claim process and supplement missing fields are seeing their comprehensive transparency scores rise by an average of more than 30%, a shift that in turn pushes their RootData “site heat value” up by roughly 220%. RootData says the move is already “greatly enhancing community trust and market attention,” with the total number of fully certified projects now exceeding 120.

According to RootData’s explainer and posts on X, the project claiming feature allows official teams to “claim your project for free, get verified, and directly manage & update” key datasets on their dedicated pages. That includes token economic models, investor lists, core team members, roadmap and milestones, as well as calendar events such as TGE dates, exchange listings, and governance votes. Once verified, teams can push updates through a one‑click sync system that RootData says distributes changes in real time to more than 220 partner platforms, ranging from exchanges and wallets to research terminals and media dashboards.

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RootData’s transparency score, which it describes as measuring the “completeness and timeliness of project information,” is central to this approach. In prior analysis shared via a transparency alert, the platform highlighted that spot tokens with higher average disclosure levels (around 74.7%) tend to show shallower drawdowns and stronger rebounds than lower‑disclosure “Alpha” tokens (around 62.7%), arguing that better information reduces room for teams to exploit asymmetry with retail investors.

That framing has led RootData and commentators on Binance Square to urge teams to treat disclosure quality as a competitive advantage rather than a compliance chore. A recent post amplified by ChainCatcher put it bluntly: projects missing core information on financing, tokenomics or team composition risk being flagged as “black box” listings and deprioritized by sophisticated users and data aggregators.

In contrast, projects that claim profiles and keep them up to date now benefit from higher transparency scores, stronger on‑site heat rankings, and broader syndication across RootData’s data network — an increasingly important distribution channel in a cycle where listing venues, VC desks and retail traders all lean heavily on third‑party dashboards to filter signal from noise.

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Crypto Derivatives Hit $18.6T In Q1 2026: CoinGlass

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Crypto Derivatives Hit $18.6T In Q1 2026: CoinGlass

Binance maintained its leading position in crypto derivatives trading in the first quarter of 2026, while decentralized exchange Hyperliquid broke into the top 10 venues by volume, according to CoinGlass.

Derivatives trading remained the dominant force in the crypto market in Q1 2026, totaling $18.6 trillion compared with $1.94 trillion in spot trading, according to a CoinGlass report on Friday.

The analysts said trading activity remained strong over the quarter, though liquidity and capital became even more concentrated at the top. “Q1 was not about euphoria. It was about recovery, concentration, and shifting market structure,” CoinGlass said.

The data shows how a small group of exchanges continue to dominate crypto derivatives, even as decentralized platforms begin to emerge as competitors.

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Binance handles $4.9 trillion in derivatives versus $640 billion in spot

Binance processed about $4.9 trillion in derivatives volume in Q1 2026, or roughly 35% of activity among the top 10 exchanges. In 2025, the exchange held about 29% of $85.7 trillion in total derivatives volume.

The exchange also dominated spot markets at a similar share, with Q1 volumes amounting to roughly $640 billion, or around 34% of total volumes among the top 10.

Source: CoinGlass

Binance’s dominance points to its resilience despite controversy during the quarter, after several crypto community members, including OKX founder and CEO Star Xu, alleged that it played a major role in the mass liquidation event of Oct. 10, 2025.

Related: Binance sues Wall Street Journal amid report of DOJ Iran probe

Binance repeatedly denied the claims, saying the crash was driven primarily by macroeconomic factors, market maker risk controls and network congestion.

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Hyperliquid enters top 10 as perpetual DEXs gain ground

Hyperliquid, a perpetual decentralized exchange, reached a key milestone in the first quarter of 2026, breaking into the top 10 derivatives exchanges by volume roughly three years after its launch.

The platform recorded about $492.7 billion in trading volume during the quarter, securing its place among the industry’s largest derivatives venues, including Binance, OKX, Bybit, Gate, BitGet, BingX, LBank, WhiteBIT and Coinbase.

Related: Wallet in Telegram launches perpetual futures trading with Lighter

The milestone comes after steady growth across previous quarters. In its 2025 report, CoinGlass said Hyperliquid nearly dominated the entire perp DEX sector, with its market share reaching up to 70% at times.

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Perp DEX activity also expanded rapidly in 2025, with volumes nearly tripling over the year and accounting for up to 90% of volumes across major derivatives exchanges.

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