In a recent development, some XRP whales have made significant transfers involving more than 70 million XRP tokens across crypto wallets and popular exchanges. This is particularly interesting because it comes ahead of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing deadline in the case against the blockchain giant Ripple. Moreover, this has raised speculations across the crypto community regarding the purpose of this movement. Where were the tokens transferred to, let’s see.
More Than 70 Million XRP Tokens on the Move
WhaleAlert, a large transaction crypto tracker, paints a picture of the origin and destination of the coins. According to details released by the platform, the tokens were moved in three separate transactions. The first one, approximately 15 hours ago from the time of writing, carried exactly 30,530,000 XRP tokens (worth $15,920,021) from a wallet labeled “unknown” to the Bitstamp exchange.
🚨 30,530,000 #XRP (15,920,021 USD) transferred from unknown wallet to #Bitstamphttps://t.co/j9puHo9hRd
— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) April 28, 2024
The Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange has been a recipient of massive amounts of XRP tokens in recent months after the blockchain giant Ripple acquired a stake for an undisclosed sum in the exchange last year. However, market participants have been divided in their speculations about the reasons behind the transfer.
Some view it as a strategic move by whales to sell off their holdings because of the uncertainties looming around the court case, while others interpret it as Ripple’s liquidity strategy. The fact that this transaction happened so soon after other significant transfers from the same XRP whale to Bitstamp heightens the rumors about why it happened.
Meanwhile, the second whale transfer carried exactly 23,037,429 XRP tokens (estimated at $11,550,284) from the world’s largest crypto exchange by trade volume, Binance, to an unidentified wallet address.
🚨 23,037,429 #XRP (11,550,284 USD) transferred from #Binance to unknown wallethttps://t.co/K00G3Ry7ab
— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) April 29, 2024
A transfer from a crypto exchange to a wallet is usually interpreted as an accumulation for holding. This can signify growing confidence in the project, especially during uncertain times like this in the SEC-Ripple lawsuit. Lastly, WhaleAlert mentioned that approximately 1 hour ago from press time, another whale made a significant transfer of 20,980,252 tokens (valued at $10,603,607) from the same Binance exchange to another “unknown wallet.”
XRP Price Movements Amid the Transfers
Meanwhile, the price of XRP has been trading sideways, beginning the new week in the red zone. According to data from CoinMarketCap, XRP is currently changing hands at $0.5082. This represents a decline of 2.18% in the last 24 hours. What is more, XRP’s market cap has also taken a hit, dropping by 2.17% within the recorded time to $28 billion.
Additionally, the trading activities involving XRP tokens as depicted in its trading volume have surged by a notable 69.7% to $972.3 million over the last day. Investors are eagerly watching the lawsuit’s progress while market analysts attribute XRP’s recent price decline to general market trends and expectations for the SEC’s next step.
