XRP Ledger 'Ghost Chain' Debate Erupts

Bots and Spam Dominate XRPL Activity

A new report from blockchain analytics firm Bitquery has reignited questions about the true nature of activity on the XRP Ledger ($XRP). Bitquery found that 793 sender accounts generated 75.98 million of XRPL's 81.56 million transactions in August, or 93.2% of the month's activity. Of those 793 accounts, 767 were identified as automated accounts, including trading bots, NFT bots, and spam accounts, while the remaining 26 were exchange hot wallets.

DEX trading bots made up 48.1% of all transactions, while dust-sending accounts made up another 23%. The picture becomes starker when human activity is isolated: Bitquery found that 89.6% of active accounts were considered real users, but their transactions made up just 0.8% of all XRPL activity in August.

Bitquery identified one address that generated almost 13 million transactions in August, including 12.79 million decentralized-exchange orders. Only 882 of those orders resulted in trades. The account alone produced roughly one-sixth of everything XRPL processed during the month. The ledger did, however, reach a broader milestone: the XRP Ledger crossed 5 billion total transactions, with activity increasingly concentrated among a small group of accounts.

Schwartz Defends Low Fees as Critics Cry 'Ghost Chain'

XRP critic Scam Daddy highlighted the figures, saying the accounts were "all bots and spammers" and that less than 1% of XRPL activity came from real human payments, adding "It's been this way for 8 years," before describing the network as a "Ghost chain."

Ripple CTO Emeritus David Schwartz defended the XRP Ledger after the findings surfaced. As an original XRPL architect, he argued that low fees naturally attract users conducting both valuable and low-value activities, and challenged the assumption that higher fees and fewer inexpensive transactions would improve the blockchain. Schwartz posed a pointed rhetorical question in response: "If it were more expensive and fewer people did low-value things on it, would that somehow make it better?"

The original critic later clarified that the post was intended to draw attention to the composition of XRPL activity rather than dismiss the network outright. Pro-XRP lawyer Bill Morgan also weighed in, arguing that calling XRPL a "ghost chain" was "a rhetorical attack because the phrase is a slogan, not a metric."

The debate complicates the significance of XRPL's 5.06 billion validated-transaction milestone. The ledger is handling enormous throughput, while the economic value behind that traffic increasingly depends on whether automated activity settles into trades, payments, and liquidity that require meaningful XRP balances.

Sources
Bitquery: Who Actually Uses the XRP Ledger? 5bn Txs Counted
CryptoSlate: XRP Ledger crossed 5 billion transactions, but 92% of August activity came from just 767 bots
CoinGape: Ghost Chain, XRP Ledger Under Fire For 93% Bot Transactions, Ripple Veteran Schwartz Defends