In the cryptocurrency world, a significant development occurred as an XRP whale executed a major transaction, transferring millions of dollars worth of XRP coins to an exchange within the last 24 hours. This event signaled an increase in whale activity for XRP and sparked rumors about the altcoin’s potential price impact on the crypto market.
On Tuesday, an unidentified whale moved approximately 27.7 million XRP tokens, valued at around $16.26 million, to the Europe-based crypto exchange Bitstamp. The transaction was detected by Whale Alert, a service known for tracking blockchain whale activities, but the identity of the whale, individual or corporate, remains unverified.
Furthermore, according to Whale Alert, at least 800 million of the unlocked XRP tokens on January 1st were directly placed in escrow by Ripple, which still holds over 50% of the total XRP supply. Many crypto investors and followers continue to argue that Ripple operates on a more centralized structure compared to its blockchain competitors.
The transaction involving over 27 million XRP tokens is not the first of its kind. Whale Alert had previously reported multiple transactions involving XRP, and importantly, these transactions indicated that whales had sold off a significant portion of their XRP holdings last year.
In the final months of the previous year, whales had been regularly transferring millions of XRP to exchanges, instilling fear in the market. The continuous transfer of XRP tokens to exchanges may imply that investors are planning to sell their holdings, but the uncertainty increases as it becomes difficult to track the fate of the assets after being moved to exchanges.
At the time of writing, the price of XRP has seen a 0.48% decrease in the last 24 hours, trading at $0.6263. The moves by XRP whales could be interpreted as an attempt to realize profits amidst recent price surges. Despite trading well below its all-time high (ATH) of $3.84 reached in January 2018, XRP’s transaction volume has risen by 68% in the last 24 hours to $1.3 billion, and its market cap is at $33.9 billion, with a 0.86% increase in the last day.