Ripple CTO Emeritus David Schwartz reported that his XRP Ledger hub has seen a significant increase in stability and active connections over the past two weeks, surpassing 500 peers. The exact reason for this recovery remains unknown, despite recent network upgrades.
The improved stability of a major public XRP Ledger hub signals reduced stress on a key network relay, which is relevant for operators. However, this network-level health metric is distinct from market-driven demand, such as ETF inflows, and does not directly impact XRP's valuation gap.
Ripple CTO Emeritus David Schwartz has observed a noticeable improvement in the stability of his private XRP Ledger (XRPL) hub over the past two weeks, with active connections rising above 500. He shared on X on September 17 that the hub has experienced fewer peer disconnects, with charts indicating around 501 active peers, close to a two-week high of 509. Schwartz clarified that a minor dip around September 15-16 was due to a monitoring glitch, not a genuine connection loss. He humorously speculated that the increase might be due to "meaningless inbound stable connections" aimed at satisfying him, but emphasized the positive trend is real. This recovery follows a period of instability in July, marked by onReadMessage: No message of desired type errors, and a network-wide manifest-flood event in late August. By early September, the hub was supporting approximately 400 peers. The recent stability coincides with the release of XRP Ledger 3.4.0, which introduced peer-protection enhancements and new lending amendments, though Schwartz has not confirmed if this upgrade is the direct cause of the improved performance. The XRPL itself has recently processed record load, with a block containing 3,254 transactions after the fixCleanup activation demonstrating its capacity. Schwartz's commentary carries added weight as he recently joined the XRP Ledger Foundation board.