Over the past 24 hours, at least 44,500,000 XRP has moved to and from crypto trading platforms, with Ripple and crypto exchange Bitvavo taking the spotlight.
The transactions, spotted by Whale Alert come at a time when XRP’s metrics are down, a sign of dampened market sentiment. With XRP price trading at $0.6442 following a 3.15% increase, questions on the strategic nature of the whale movements have emerged.
Steady Flow, Unclear Objectives
The two large XRP transactions moved in opposite directions to showcase a steady flow but different motivations among the entities involved.
The smaller of the two transactions involved the transfer of 20,000,000 XRP worth $13,044,810 at the time. This transfer originated from a Bitvavo Exchange. The wallet that received the funds also belonged to an unregistered user, however, the address is relatively old with a June 16 activation date.
The bigger XRP transaction features 24,500,000 XRP valued at $15,312,871 or $0.6250 per coin. Unlike the previous transaction, Ripple Labs activated this sending address in January. Based on the transaction history, the wallet has a history of sending funds to exchanges with Bitstamp and Bitso being the major favorites.
With the current XRP outlook in which the coin’s trading volume has dropped 40% to $2,022,772,385, pundits assume that the first whale moved funds out of Bitvavo in a bid to avoid the liquidity crunch that just engrossed the market. The latest Ripple’s fund movement suggests the blockchain payments firm’s likely liquidation to bolster its operations.
XRP in the Spotlight
Beyond the whale transactions, XRP has been in the spotlight in recent times following the BlackRock XRP ETF hoax. The XRP ETF filing has drawn the attention of authorities and notably, the bad publicity around the event contributes to reasons why the coin shed off its earlier gains.
Overall, the sentiment around XRP has not completely waned, as top market analyst EGRAG believes in the coin’s ability to surge to $1.98 if it can defend itself against the $0.55 support zone.
