XRP Ledger Under Fire for Massive Bot Transactions

The XRP Ledger has been criticized for its lopsided distribution of transactions, with a study by Bitquery revealing that 793 accounts handled 93.2% of all network activity in August 2026.

This high concentration of bot-driven activity has led some to label the blockchain a 'Ghost chain.'

Ripple CTO Emeritus David Schwartz defended the network, arguing that low costs are not a liability and questioning whether it would be better if transactions were more expensive.

The data from Bitquery also showed that after eliminating machine-driven activity and spam, just 0.8% of the ledger traffic was made by 'real, human-scale payments.'