XRP Price Faces Short-Term Pressure as Whale Activity Increases
XRP’s price could face short-term pressure as the asset’s largest holders move funds to exchanges at an increased rate, according to CryptoQuant Head of Research Julio Moreno.
“Sudden and increasing whale flows into exchanges may indicate an inflection for prices as large holders may start selling on exchange,” he told Decrypt.
On Thursday, the 30-day moving average for XRP inflows to exchanges from whales increased to 260 million from 141 million at the beginning of July, according to CryptoQuant data. The trend was first flagged by The Enigma Trader, a pseudonymous analyst.
Activity among whales can play a significant role in shaping market sentiment, and in July, XRP’s price dropped after exchange inflows from whales spiked, Moreno added.
XRP recently rose 9.7% on Thursday to $3.29, according to crypto data provider CoinGecko. Last month, the asset’s price jumped to $3.65, a new all-time high that was seven years in the making.
That same day, on July 18, XRP whales moved 660 million tokens to exchanges. The token’s price fell to $3 in the following week.
Although heightened inflows to exchanges from large XRP holders can be bearish, the trend works in both directions, with recent examples, Moreno said.
An increase in XRP’s price last year following the reelection of U.S. President Donald Trump also coincided with lower exchange reserves, particularly on the crypto exchange Upbit, one of the largest exchanges for XRP, he explained.
Before XRP’s price set a new all-time high last month, Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen moved 50 million XRP, which mostly went to exchanges. The pseudonymous blockchain sleuth ZachXBT estimated that $140 million worth of Larson’s XRP made it to exchanges.
The latest crypto rally has awakened whales for other digital assets, including Bitcoin. Last month, the institutional crypto firm Galaxy Digital said that it had executed a $9 billion Bitcoin sale on behalf of a single, Satoshi-era investor.