Ripple Transfers 150 Million XRP to New Wallet Amid Growing SEC Settlement Conjecture

New large XRP transfers involving the issuing company Ripple have been noticed in the last 24 hours. According to reports, the blockchain firm shifted 150 million XRP coins to another wallet address raising speculations among market observers. Notably, this comes amid ongoing speculation about an imminent settlement with the SEC regarding their extended lawsuit.

Interestingly, Ripple Labs was not the only entity observed moving XRP over the last day. Two extra transactions happened side-by-side, carrying heavy amounts of XRP to two prominent centralized cryptocurrency exchanges. While XRP has begun a rally that has sent the price above the $0.6 mark, investors are worried about the potential effect of such heavy transfers on the future price trajectory of the coin.

Ripple Shifts 150 Million Coins to Another Wallet

Earlier today, Whale Alert first reported the substantial transaction on X (formerly Twitter). According to its report, the California-based blockchain company sent a staggering 150 million XRP coins, valued at approximately $87.5 million, to a wallet address labeled ‘unknown.’

🚨 🚨 🚨 🚨 150,000,000 #XRP (87,493,136 USD) transferred from #Ripple to unknown wallethttps://t.co/z5janBJZ1N

— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) July 16, 2024

However, upon further checking, it was revealed that the wallet, now identified with ‘rP4X…sKxv3,’ has been a steady receiver of XRP from Ripple. It is important to note that Ripple often releases a set amount of XRP from escrow every month, usually up to 1 billion coins. From this amount, 200 million XRP goes into the market and 800 million is relocked in escrow. It has been observed that the mentioned wallet receives the portion designated to be released into the market through sales from Ripple.

Meanwhile, Whale Alert also recorded two separate transactions carrying XRP to separate exchanges. Per the data, about 2 hours after Ripple’s transaction, an anonymous whale initiated these transfers to two exchanges. The first one moved exactly 25,355,000 XRP, worth $14.8 million to the Luxembourg-based crypto exchange, Bitstamp. Simultaneously, the same whale shifted another 19,725,000 XRP, valued at $11.5 million, to the Mexico-based exchange Bitso.

All these transactions come amid speculations that the Securities and Exchange Commission will be settling soon with its legal opponent, Ripple. Recall that the SEC filed a lawsuit against Ripple, alleging that the company violated federal security laws, hence requesting a $2 billion penalty from the company. However, Ripple has insisted that $10 million is a more reasonable settlement amount.

Lawyers and experts in the field, including pro-XRP lawyer Bill Morgan, have said that they expect a final judgment in the remedies briefing either by the end of the month or at the beginning of August.

Ripple Withdraws Stake From Bitstamp

In other news, Ripple has reportedly withdrawn its stakes from the Bitstamp exchange. Even though the reasons behind this move are unclear, it has been speculated that it has something to do with Robinhood purchasing the crypto exchange. Recall that in June, Robinhood announced that it had acquired Bitstamp for a whopping $200 million.

Ripple had previously purchased an undisclosed stake in the exchange in 2023. At the time, the president of Ripple, Monica Long, emphasized that the investment was a strategic move to solidify Ripple’s global presence. Following Ripple’s stake acquisition, hundreds of millions of XRP were sent to the Bitstamp exchange by the prominent whale with the wallet address ‘r4wf7…4Rzn.’

Consequently, observers began to link the entity with Ripple Labs. Even though the claim wasn’t confirmed, the sizeable amount of XRP coins shifted to the exchange caught market attention. Ripple also withdrew its investments from Tranglo and MoneyGram International.

XRP Movements Amid Whale Transactions

For the past few days, XRP has maintained an upward trajectory, boosting investors’ confidence. The much coveted $0.6 mark has been crossed and the coin does not show any sign of slowing down yet. In the last 24 hours, XRP has skyrocketed by 14.90% to reach $0.616.

The growing XRP price represents renewed investors’ confidence in the project fueled by the expected SEC settlement. Notably, XRP has moved between the lows and highs of $0.5368 and $0.6168 over the last day with an increase of 43.93% in its 24-hour trading volume. Additionally, Coinglass data reveals that there has been an uptick of 20.23% in XRP’s futures Open Interest (OI) to $818.02 million. At the same time, its derivatives volume surged 55.62% to $5.15 billion.