$XRP Ledger app activity has picked up, with tagged transactions jumping 28.6% as more applications become active on the network.

Developer-related activity on the $XRP Ledger is showing renewed momentum, with new data pointing to a noticeable rise over the past week. According to an X post from XRPL dUNL validator Vet, source-tagged transactions have increased sharply as more applications and services come live on the ecosystem.

$XRP Ledger Records Stronger App Activity

According to the data, source-tagged transactions reached 676,800 per week, representing a 28.6% increase compared to the first week of the reporting period.

An accompanying chart shows daily source-tagged transactions trending higher after a noticeable drop in late June. Activity accelerated on the third day of July, with several sessions since then pushing above the 80,000 mark. On July 10, tagged transactions on the $XRP Ledger reached 120,000 per day, one of the highest readings on the chart.

$XRP Ledger App Activity Spike/Vet

Network participation also ticked up during the same timeframe. Average daily active source tags rose to 176, up 13% from the beginning of the reporting period.

Notably, source tags identify the services and applications generating activity on the $XRP Ledger. As such, their increase suggests that more platforms are now operating on the network.

Overall, the metric shows that developers are actively deploying newer applications on $XRP Ledger. Also, those apps are generating interest, resulting in more source-tagged transactions processed on the Ledger per day.

While the overall activity grew, the data shows that new wallets per week held steady at 12,400. Vet noted that the flat new wallet count suggests that existing users are becoming more active. The current increase in app usage is from users already registered on the network, not primarily from new addresses.

Rising Developer Activity Fueled by “Make Waves?”

Vet noted that one possible explanation for the higher level of activity is the ongoing “Make Waves on XRPL” initiative organized by XRPL Commons.

For the uninitiated, the three-month competition started on June 22. XRPL Commons offers 50,000 $XRP in rewards to developers who launch live applications on the $XRP Ledger mainnet and attract active users and measurable on-chain activity.

The hackathon bases the incentives on working products and does not accept prototypes. At the end of the program on September 21, the best projects will receive a share of the 50,000 $XRP prize money.

For context, 25,000 $XRP will go to the best overall project, selected by the jury. 5,000 $XRP will go to the application with the highest number of users. The project with the highest on-chain volume will receive another 5,000 $XRP, while 1,000 $XRP will be shared among 15 projects with 300 active users.

Vet suggested that this could be the reason why both tagged transactions and active source tags have climbed together. Nonetheless, this remains unconfirmed.

$XRP Whale Activity and Price Decline

Despite the increase in app activity, $XRP whales have slowed down transactions. Over the past week, transactions exceeding $1 million on the $XRP Ledger have dropped from 70 to two, a 97% decline.

At the same time, $XRP also pulled back by 6%, as bears continue to dominate market proceedings. At the time of writing, $XRP trades at $1.078, continuing to defend key support areas despite weakness.