XRP whales are on the move amidst a new surge in the wider market as the altcoin is currently grinding better than most would expect. The cryptocurrency has been on a roll in the past 24 hours, which has enabled it to outperform other large market-cap cryptocurrencies in both the 24-hour and seven-day time frames. It is interesting to note that this surge in the ultra-bullish XRP narrative can be partly linked to an increase in whale activity. According to both on-chain and exchange data, large wallets have increased their accumulation of XRP tokens.

XRP Whales On The Move

The XRP ecosystem is home to various whales besides Ripple whose actions may also signal the ongoing sentiment for the cryptocurrency. Various on-chain data has shown large XRP transactions in the past few weeks to and from exchanges. Whatever the reasons, massive transactions are worth paying attention to as they can either increase or decrease buying and selling pressure. 

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Notably, large transactions have increased in the past 24 hours, suggesting some whales might be accumulating XRP tokens. According to data from Whale Alerts, a crypto whale tracking service, 23.2 million XRP worth $13.58 million was recently transferred from Binance to a private wallet.

🚨 23,216,582 #XRP (13,587,688 USD) transferred from #Binance to unknown wallethttps://t.co/hw9Tr12AN9

— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) July 16, 2024

Shortly after, there was another transfer of 25.2 million XRP worth $14.9 million from Binance to another unknown wallet. 

🚨 25,247,582 #XRP (14,907,202 USD) transferred from #Binance to unknown wallethttps://t.co/a5HaenCO7a

— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) July 16, 2024

Data from the on-chain analytics platform Santiment also supports this whale accumulation narrative. A metric that follows the balances of wallets holding between 100,000 and 1 million XRP has significantly increased since last week. The number of addresses in this cohort currently stands at 30,722, which is an increase of 122 addresses from 30,600 addresses recorded at the beginning of July.

Similarly, the large holder metric shows that five new addresses have joined the number of addresses holding between 10 million XRP and 100 million XRP tokens since July 13. There are currently 262 addresses in this cohort. Although the increase is relatively small compared to the total number of holders, their importance cannot be overstated. Their substantial control over the token supply makes them key players in the price of the altcoin.

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As noted on social media platform X by Santiment, this increase in accumulation has pushed the total number of XRP tokens held by addresses holding over 100,000 coins to 51.29 billion, its current all-time high. 

🐳📈 XRP has now climbed above $0.58 for the first time since the market-wide retrace back on April 12th. This rebound is supported by climbing levels of coin hodling from whales and sharks with 100K+ XRP coins. A noticable turning point in supply accumulation began last August. pic.twitter.com/nBNsAfnoiw

— Santiment (@santimentfeed) July 16, 2024

At the time of writing, the altcoin is trading at $0.6136 and has been up 13% and 34% in the past 24 hours and seven days, respectively. Interest in XR has now reached its highest level in four months. The altcoin is now at a critical price as this surge in interest could cause the price of XRP to continue climbing and easily break above resistance at $0.613.

Featured image created with Dall.E, chart from Tradingview.com