XRP Ledger Defends Bot Activity After ‘Ghost Chain’ Criticism

The XRP Ledger (XRPL) is facing renewed scrutiny after blockchain analytics suggested that a small group of accounts generated the overwhelming majority of network activity in August 2026, prompting debate over bots, spam and genuine user adoption.

According to data from Bitquery, just 793 accounts were responsible for 93.2% of XRP Ledger transactions during the month. The analysis claimed that after filtering machine-generated activity and spam, only about 0.8% of ledger traffic represented “real, human-scale payments.” Nearly half of active accounts also reportedly stopped interacting with the network after completing a single transaction.

XRP critic Scam Daddy highlighted the findings on X, arguing that bots and spammers dominate XRPL activity and describing the blockchain as a “ghost chain.”

Ripple CTO Emeritus David Schwartz rejected that characterization, arguing that the XRP Ledger’s low transaction costs naturally allow users to conduct both valuable and low-value activities. Schwartz questioned whether making transactions more expensive—and therefore discouraging some activity—would actually improve the network.

Scam Daddy later clarified that the intention was simply to highlight XRPL’s usage breakdown rather than dispute its technical capabilities.

Pro-XRP lawyer Bill Morgan also pushed back against the “ghost chain” label, sharing an AI-generated analysis that described the term as a rhetorical slogan rather than a meaningful network metric. The response argued that focusing heavily on bot or exchange activity can overlook other XRP Ledger use cases, including payments and tokenization.

Meanwhile, development of the XRP Ledger continues. The xrpld 3.3.0 Permission Delegation amendment is moving toward the validator voting process.

Permission Delegation is designed to introduce role-based permissions, allowing institutions to assign specific operational functions without exposing master wallet keys. XRPL validator Vet confirmed support for the amendment, saying he had voted “Yes” and describing Permission Delegation as a “critical feature” for the XRP Ledger.

The debate highlights the challenge of measuring blockchain adoption solely through transaction counts, particularly on networks where low fees make automated activity inexpensive.