David Schwartz Personally Funds XRP Ledger Infrastructure Upgrade as XRPL Activity Soars

Ripple’s chief technology officer David Schwartz is taking a hands-on role in expanding the XRP Ledger’s capabilities.

In a move separate from his duties at Ripple, Schwartz announced he is privately funding and operating a powerful new server to bolster the XRPL ecosystem.

The initiative will see Schwartz deploy a high-performance server at a New York data center with a 10GB unmetered internet connection. The goal is to establish a central hub for hosting XRPL validators and other services tied to the network. Emphasizing that this is a personal project—not an official Ripple initiative—Schwartz explained it’s aimed at improving network resiliency and performance without interfering in consensus processes.

Ledger Activity Hits New Highs

The infrastructure boost comes at a time of record engagement across the XRP Ledger. More than 70 million transactions were recorded in July alone, pushing the ledger’s all-time total close to 3.83 billion. Onboarding continues at pace, with over 1 million new XRPL accounts created this year and an average of 3,000 new wallets per day.

DeFi and Cross-Chain Growth Accelerate

July also marked a surge in on-chain DeFi activity. Volume on XRPL’s automated market makers climbed 17% to 408 million XRP, while decentralized exchange traffic jumped 21% to 465 million XRP. Cross-chain integrations are expanding, too—over $165 million in assets moved via Axelar to EVM-compatible chains.

Stablecoin adoption is gaining traction as well. Brazilian digital bank BrazaBank’s BBRL stablecoin crossed $4.2 million in circulation, making it the second-largest fiat-backed asset on the XRP Ledger.

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Smart Contract Development on the Rise

Momentum also surrounds XRPL’s recently launched Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)-compatible sidechain, which went live at the end of June. In just its first week, it attracted over 1,400 smart contracts, combining Ethereum-style programmability with XRPL’s low-fee, fast-settlement infrastructure.

Looking Ahead

With ecosystem metrics climbing and Schwartz’s infrastructure initiative reinforcing the core network, XRP Ledger appears to be entering a pivotal growth phase. These parallel developments—both technical and community-led—position XRPL to accommodate higher transaction throughput and a wider range of decentralized applications in the months ahead.