Gigantic Whale Resurfaces To Move $254M in XRP. Here’s the Destination

The actions of large cryptocurrency holders, often referred to as “whales,” can exert significant influence on the market. Whale activity in the crypto market has intensified with the Bitcoin halving drawing closer, and recently, an XRP whale sent shockwaves through the crypto community with a large XRP transfer, prompting speculation about its potential impact.

On January 16, a staggering 443 million XRP tokens, valued at over $254 million, were moved between two addresses. Intriguingly, the latter address was freshly created, raising more questions about potential ownership overlap, with the same whale transferring tokens between personal wallets.

Whale Alert (@whale_alert), a prominent account on X that tracks crypto whales reported the transaction. Both wallets are owned by anonymous users. Whale Alert reported the first wallet as an “unknown wallet” and the second wallet as an “unknown new wallet.”

Dissecting the Situation

Further investigation showed the origin of this hefty sum. It originated from a wallet that received over 425 million XRP from a Bitvavo account in August 2023. Intriguingly, this substantial amount has embarked on a series of transfers between various addresses.

Each of these movements, following a similar pattern, involved a newly opened address receiving the 425 million XRP before engaging in smaller intermediate transactions and relocating to a different address.

Potential Price Impact

The key question on everyone’s mind is whether this whale intends to sell its sizable holdings. Unfortunately, answering this question definitively is challenging. There is also no way to confirm if all intermediary wallets belong to the same whale, as these could be the actions of multiple whales working together.

If the whale doesn’t change strategies, it will keep moving the funds around in small amounts and the market should not show any significant negative reaction. However, a massive sell-off might send XRP tumbling.

Notably, the tokens have yet to reach any known exchange addresses, suggesting potential efforts to obfuscate the holdings’ traceability.

All the XRP community can hope is that the whale doesn’t sell all the tokens at once. Disposing of such a large quantity within a short timeframe would undoubtedly negatively impact the price of XRP.

Meanwhile, XRP might be on the brink of recovery, as a prominent figure recently called XRP’s current level the bottom. With a massive resurgence expected, more whales might start making moves, and time will tell if XRP can withstand these whale movements.

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Tobi Loba

Tobi Loba is a passionate writer with a vast interest in the stock market. She joined the crypto ecosystem about three years ago and has written lots of ebooks and articles in relation to cryptocurrency and blockchain projects. Tobi Loba earned her degree at the University of Ibadan.