Agentic payments on the XRP Ledger (XRPL) have recorded a rapid surge, surpassing 13 million transactions, according to Chandler Fang, cofounder of t54ai and previously a product lead at Ripple. Fang noted this growth in a recent X post, describing faster-than-anticipated adoption of agent-driven payments across the XRPL ecosystem.
Transaction growth and merchant adoption
Fang pointed out that agentic payment volumes have soared from roughly 1 million transactions in July to over 13 million as of early October. This sharp rise highlights strong momentum in onchain settlement facilitated by merchant agents on XRPL.
Ripplex is a core developer arm within Ripple focusing on the expansion and technical advancement of the XRP Ledger, a decentralized blockchain network designed for fast, low-fee value transfer between currencies.
J.A. Akinyele, RippleX head of engineering, stated that the XRPL has processed 13,489,468 agentic transactions supported by 168 participating x402 merchants at present. These transactions have collectively settled 6,982.32 XRP and 12,009.98 RLUSD, Ripple’s stablecoin pegged to the US dollar.
Akinyele had previously predicted that agentic transactions would cross 10 million, a benchmark now significantly exceeded. He now sees 100 million agentic transactions as a “sooner-than-expected” milestone for the XRPL network.
Mini dictionary: x402 merchants are service providers authorized on the XRPL to facilitate agentic onchain payments using the x402 protocol, which enables autonomous agents to transact with digital assets automatically.
| Date/Period | Transactions | x402 Merchants | XRP Settled | RLUSD Settled |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 2024 | ~1,000,000 | Not specified | Not specified | Not specified |
| Current (Oct 2026) | 13,489,468 | 168 | 6,982.32 | 12,009.98 |
Real-world usage and future outlook
Fang envisions that with the 13 million transaction milestone achieved, the next stage for agentic payments will bring more real-world merchants and services onto the blockchain. He anticipates this growth will be supported by autonomous agents handling payments in both XRP and RLUSD, settling transactions via the x402 protocol directly on the XRPL.
Developers and agents are already utilizing XRP Ledger’s AI toolkit to pay for APIs, data access, and compute resources, which enables the creation of new onchain products and services.
Agentic payments on the XRP Ledger have grown from 1 million to over 13 million in just a few months, with hundreds of merchants now participating and settling in XRP and RLUSD.
Akinyele discussed these developments at the XRP Seoul 2026 conference, which convened last week. In his keynote, he focused on the expanding role of the AI Agent Economy and its potential to impact not just payments but also broader digital services running on the XRPL.
Akinyele also stated that these agentic payments now represent approximately 25% of all activities recorded on the XRP Ledger, underlining the growing importance of automated agents within the network.
Infrastructure advancements to support growth
In response to surging demand, Ripple is actively developing infrastructure customized for agents. According to Akinyele, these features include verifiable digital identities, strict permission and spending rule enforcement, and secure smart wallets. These enhancements are intended to facilitate safe and efficient settlement for both XRP and RLUSD, with confirmation typically completed in 3 to 5 seconds.
Ripple is building specialized agent infrastructure for verifiable identities, compliance controls, and fast-settling digital wallets to meet demand for agentic payments.
As autonomous payments and the integration of artificial intelligence accelerate, XRPL appears positioned to capture more real-world use cases, especially as network participation broadens and merchant integrations expand through agentic solutions.
