Ripple Moves 200 Million XRP to Unknown Wallet Amid SEC Appeal Speculations

American blockchain technology company, Ripple, has caught the crypto community’s attention with its latest transfer of XRP, to the tune of 200 million coins to an unidentified wallet. The community, which has been on the edge about a possible appeal from the SEC, is beginning to speculate about the intent of this transfer.

Ripple has been known to move substantial amounts of XRP now and then, being the largest holder of the coin, including its 1 billion XRP monthly releases from escrow to control circulation. Let us get an overview of the transaction below.

Ripple’s 200 Million XRP Shift

Within the last 24 hours, a prominent crypto large transaction tracker, Whale Alert, flagged the transaction on X (formerly Twitter) informing its over 2 million followers. According to the report, the California-based digital payment company moved 200 million XRP, valued at approximately $117.6 million, to an unknown wallet.

🚨 🚨 🚨 🚨 🚨 200,000,000 #XRP (117,619,123 USD) transferred from #Ripple to unknown wallethttps://t.co/7e1gB5P684

— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) September 23, 2024

While the tracker mentioned above did not reveal the identity of the receiving wallet, data from XRP Scan, a dedicated XRP tracking platform, indicated that this address isn’t new to Ripple transactions and has previously received XRP from the firm. In fact, its most recent deposit occurred last week, on September 13 when the company shifted a staggering 150 million XRP, worth approximately $87.9 million, to the address.

Between that has been a series of withdrawals to multiple wallets. While the actual reasons behind the movements are currently unknown, they have raised conjectures among observers especially since there is a growing concern about an SEC appeal.

Recall that Judge Torres ruled, ordering Ripple to pay $125 million in civil penalties for violating federal securities laws by offering XRP to institutional investors. Even though the company perceived it as a form of victory over the SEC, the regulatory watchdog still has a window to appeal the decision.

Meanwhile, the court had ordered a pause on the payment, pending an appeal from the Commission. The SEC has until two weeks to decide this.

Prominent Whale Dumps 17 Million XRP

Meanwhile, Ripple is not the only entity to have moved XRP within the last day. A prominent whale with the wallet address ‘r4wf…4Rzn,’ returned to the scene with a mouthwatering 17 million XRP transfer. Per Whale Alert data, the entity transferred exactly 17,310,000 XRP, valued at $10.1 million to the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange.

🚨 17,310,000 #XRP (10,165,958 USD) transferred from unknown wallet to #Bitstamphttps://t.co/rM3uT6BZnO

— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) September 23, 2024

The regular movement from this whale to Bitstamp has raised concerns among observers as hundreds of millions of XRP have been dumped into the exchange since the beginning of this year. Community members have guessed the identity of the entity behind the address, some even speculate that it is a Ripple-affiliated address since the enormous transfers started after the blockchain company acquired a stake in the exchange, which it has since sold.

XRP Price Movement

Meanwhile, the price of XRP appears to have reacted negatively following these heavy movements. According to on-chain data, XRP declined by 1.02% to trade at $0.5849 at the time of writing. Moreover, the coin has traded between the low and high of $0.5816 and $0.5934 in the last 24 hours.

What is more, XRP saw a slight uptick in its one-day trading volume, jumping by 2.77% to rest at $909.7 million with a live market cap of $33 billion. Additionally, investors interest and positive market sentiment appears to have increased as depicted in its futures open positions. Per Coinglass data, this metric rose by 2.3%

Ultimwtely, the SEC has until October 7 to file an appeal. If at the time it did not, the case will be resolved and might potentially impact the price of XRP moving forward.