XRP’s May Supply Shock: RLUSD Minting Doubles Supply While Active Addresses Hit Two-Month High

Ripple issues 200M RLUSD on XRP Ledger, total supply hits $690M. XRP price lags at $1.37 despite 12 days of ETF inflows and network activity spikes.

Ripple minted 200 million RLUSD tokens on the XRP Ledger on May 20 – the largest single issuance ever on that chain – and burned 100 million RLUSD on Ethereum in tandem. The move pushed the stablecoin’s total supply on the XRPL to $690 million, a doubling in just 60 days, while the overall RLUSD market capitalisation climbed to roughly $1.75 billion. Three days later, the network completed that milestone with an all-time high in RLUSD supply of around $1.76 billion, cementing the XRP Ledger’s fourth-place rank among tokenised real?world asset platforms.

The protocol isn’t standing still either. An upgrade dubbed “fixCleanup3_1_3” is scheduled for activation on May 27, bringing fixes for NFTs, credit protocols and permission domains. Ripple also chipped in $6 million to a funding round for cross?chain platform Squid, part of a broader push to embed the XRPL deeper into the multi?chain ecosystem.

That infrastructure build?out is showing up in user activity. On May 22 the XRP Ledger recorded 48,453 active addresses, the highest count since March 30. Two days earlier the figure had already been a robust 43,520. A single 24?hour window saw around 4,300 new wallets created – the fourth?largest daily increase this year. The network is clearly humming, yet the token’s price tells a different story.

XRP last changed hands at $1.37, some 19 percent below its 200?day moving average of $1.70 and a long way from the 52?week peak of $3.56. The year?to?date decline stands at roughly 27 percent. After recovering from an April low of $1.27, the cryptocurrency pushed into the resistance zone between $1.40 and $1.55 only to meet sellers there. The relative strength index sits at 59.2, neutral territory that suggests room for movement either way.

Against that sideways drift, institutional money has been quietly flowing in. Spot XRP ETFs in the United States posted net inflows of $42 million in the week ending May 23, bringing the May total to $107.3 million. Since launch these products have collected $1.4 billion in net flows, with combined assets under management now between $1.15 billion and $1.39 billion depending on the reporting source. The stretch of positive inflows has reached 12 consecutive trading days.

One notable sell?side event stands out: Goldman Sachs fully liquidated its XRP ETF position in the first quarter of 2026, a holding worth $154 million at the time. The move contrasts sharply with the broader institutional trend and hints at a divergence in conviction among major players.

Technicians are watching the Bollinger Bands on the three?day chart. Analyst Ali Martinez flagged on May 23 that the bands had tightened to their narrowest spread in over a year – a compression pattern that historically precedes a sharp price swing. XRP is currently pinned between $1.30 and $1.50. A sustained close above $1.50 would open the door to the $1.80 target, while a break below $1.29 risks a correction toward the $1.00 round number.

Regulatory catalysts could tip the balance. On May 19 President Trump signed an executive order directing the Federal Reserve to examine whether crypto companies should get direct access to the dollar payment system. The Fed has 120 days to report back. Ripple already holds a conditional national bank charter from the OCC, and if the Fed’s doors open, XRP’s role as a bridge currency for real?time settlements in the regulated banking sector could gain real traction. Four days earlier the CLARITY Act cleared its Senate committee, adding to the sense of a clearer legal framework taking shape.

For now, the market is waiting. The volatility annualised at 27 percent remains moderate for a crypto asset of this size. The next 120 days – the Fed’s deadline – may determine whether the fundamental build?out on the XRP Ledger finally translates into price momentum, or whether the token continues to trade below the level its network activity suggests.