September 2024 was a crucial month for the XRP and Ripple community as it was a packed-up month with important updates and milestones. Dan Fisher, the community relations Manager at Ripple shared a quick recap of the month’s events.
Ripple and XRPL Advancements
Ripple announced the exploration of programmability for the XRP Ledger (XRPL). The firm plans to do this through the upcoming EVM sidechain and a possible native smart contracts functionality with community collaboration.
Xrpscan, an explorer tool for XRPL, has released an advanced on-chain search in beta. This feature allows comprehensive analysis, and they are seeking feedback from developers, exchanges, and XRPL enthusiasts. RippleX also revealed that the next XRPL Apex conference is set to take place in Singapore in June 2025.
AMM Performance and NFT Development
The past few months have been quite eventful for the XRPL Automated Market Maker AMMs on XRPL saw notable fluctuations. According to XPMarket, trading volume saw a significant rise earlier this year, peaking at over $10.6 million in June. However, by August, volumes had cooled down to around $5.4 million.
Despite the cooling volumes, the TVL in AMM hit an ATH of $31.6 million. This could mean that more investors are seeing value in the AMM, or that the assets held in these pools are increasing in value.
Advanced Infrastructure
DeXfi, a DeFi protocol on XRPL, launched an NFT marketplace and introduced new features to its platforms, dexfi.pro and the Xaman xApp. Furthermore, Bithomp, a long-standing XRPL explorer, underwent a rebranding and moved to its own dedicated website, xrplexplorer.com.
Similarly, Vet, an XRPL dUNL validator, launched a tracker for the Ripple USD (RLUSD), allowing users to monitor the beta testing of the stablecoin across both the XRPL and Ethereum networks.
In addition, XRPL wallet Xaman rolled out version 3.0, introducing new features, improvements, and a monetization strategy aimed at ensuring the platform’s sustainability and growth.
Institutional and Enterprise Adoption
Grayscale launched an XRP Trust, which offers accredited investors the opportunity to gain exposure to XRP through private placements. This was the first of four phases in the introduction of an XRP ETF. Grayscale’s Head of Product & Research, Rayhaneh Sharif-Askary.
“By facilitating cross-border payments that take just seconds to complete, XRP has the potential to transform the legacy financial infrastructure,” Grayscale’s Head of Product & Research stated.
Zoniqx, a company specializing in real-world asset tokenization on XRPL, won the 2024 FinTech Award presented by Wealth & Finance International as the Most Innovative Tokenization & Liquidity Solutions Company.
Innovations and Growth
Meanwhile, Mayukha Vadari, a Senior Software Engineer at Ripple, introduced two new XRPL specifications: XLS-80d and XLS-81d. The first focuses on making on-chain permissions easier, while the second enhances security and regulation in decentralized exchanges (DEX).
XRPKuwait announced two additional infrastructure hubs that assist the XRP Ledger to function smoothly in its open-source and decentralized glory which increased the XRPK hubs to four in number.
Anodos Finance celebrated its one-year anniversary and plans to offer portfolio management, swaps, and vaults on the XRPL. Finally, the XRPL Grants program introduced an AI funding track to support builders utilizing artificial intelligence on the platform.
