Buy-side activity is now being met with a rising share of sell pressure, suggesting increased participation from arbitrageurs and market makers rather than directional speculators.
XRPL DEX liquidity increased from approximately $14 billion to $24.6 billion over the past month, a 75% gain in USD terms. While some of this expansion can be attributed to XRP’s price appreciation during the period, which lifted dollar-denominated metrics across the board, most of the rise appears to be driven by new capital entering the order book ecosystem.
The largest single-day jump occurred on July 13, when order book liquidity rose by $4.7 billion.
However, this liquidity expansion was not matched by an equivalent rise in traded volume. Daily volumes averaged 1.67 million XRP across the last 30 days, with a notable peak at 4.04 million XRP on July 11. This was immediately followed by the liquidity spike, indicating that activity on the taker side may have prompted additional deposits from market participants seeking to capitalize on the deeper books.
However, volumes cooled in the following days, with July 16 registering 2.34 million XRP traded. While this is still above mid-June levels, it’s well below the month’s high.
Despite the overall increase in activity, the turnover ratio, which measures the percentage of liquidity consumed in trading each day, remained flat at around 0.01%. This is a sign of a growing imbalance between the depth of capital available and the pace at which it is being utilized.
While this could point to underwhelming trader demand, it more likely indicates that the XRPL DEX is entering a phase of structural maturity, where liquidity providers are preparing for future market activity and arbitrage rather than chasing current volumes.
One area where growth has been more consistent is in transaction count. Total DEX transactions on July 16 reached 683,293, a 23% increase from mid-June and only 15% below the month’s peak of 798,177 on July 14. This growth reflects increasing participation and a broader user base, particularly among small-scale or automated traders.
The distribution of buy and sell orders reveals another layer of structural adjustment on the XRPL DEX. The average buy/sell ratio over the period was 2.31, favoring buyers heavily. However, the ratio fell to 1.33 by July 16, indicating a more balanced order flow.
While buyers still outnumber sellers, the narrowing gap suggests that market-making and arbitrage strategies are absorbing order flow more efficiently, leading to tighter spreads and improved execution. This is especially relevant in the context of the liquidity jump, where deeper books allow for higher volume execution without significant slippage.
DEX trades as a share of overall XRP Ledger activity also increased, rising from 32.5% in mid-June to 37.1% by July 16. This suggests that XRPL users increasingly leverage DEX functionality rather than relying solely on custodial or centralized platforms.
The 4.6 percentage point increase over the month puts the current share near the yearly highs observed in March, reinforcing the notion that the DEX is becoming a central component of on-chain activity rather than a peripheral feature.
However, the cooling of volumes in the final days of the period may indicate a pause in outright speculation. With XRP trading in a narrow band between $0.69 and $0.73, directional bets have taken a backseat to passive strategies. Arbitrage, market making, and automated routing across XRPL-native pools and order books appear to be absorbing most of the activity.
The implications are twofold. First, the DEX’s infrastructure is maturing. Greater liquidity, more balanced order flow, and a rising share of on-chain activity all point toward growing confidence among professional participants.
Second, the system remains relatively underutilized from a speculative standpoint. The flat turnover rate and retreating buy/sell ratio suggest that the current phase is more about preparing for larger usage than accommodating it in the present.
If XRP’s price breaks out of its current range or protocol incentives continue favoring DEX usage, the market will be better equipped to absorb increased flow. The order book has expanded its capacity, while the participant base has become more evenly distributed between takers and liquidity providers.
