XRP Price Insights:
- Ripple (XRP) price has underperformed in December, with a 2% bounce from $0.61 to $0.63, and lagging behind most mega-cap altcoins in the top 10 crypto rankings.
- After multiple weeks of tepid price action Solana (SOL) has knocked XRP off the list of the top 5 most valuable cryptocurrencies.
- Behind the scenes, XRP Whales have been spotted acquiring 330 million XRP coins (~$207 million) this week.
Ripple’s (XRP) price in December has been relatively underwhelming, recording a tepid 2% price bounce from $0.61 to $0.63 so far this month. This leaves left the Ripple-backed cryptocurrency lagging behind Solana (SOL) in the top 10 crypto rankings for the first time in 20 months.
A group of strategic crypto whales were spotted capitalizing on the dip to buy millions worth of XRP this week. Could this be a precursor to an imminent XRP price breakout?
Crypto Whales Spotted Investing $207M in XRP This Week
Since XRP price hit a monthly of $0.70 on Dec 9, it has retreated 10%, trading around $0.63 at press time on Dec 23. Amid the price downturn this week, Solana (SOL) leapfrogged XRP into 5th place on the global crypto market capitalization rankings.
However, on-chain data trends show that bullish XRP whales sprung into action this week, after multiple weeks on the sidelines.
Indicatively, the Santiment chart below shows that the crypto whales (wallets holding 1 million to 100 million XRP) intensified their buying pressure this week.
Between Dec 18 to Dec 23, they added a staggering 330 million coins to their balances.
The Whales Wallet Balance metric tracks real-time changes in the balances held by corporate entities and high networth investors. The newly-acquired 330 million XRP are worth approximately $207 million, when valued at the current price of $0.63.
Typically, such a large capital inflow from the whales’ often triggers a significant shift in the market dynamics. When it occurs during a price downtrend as observed above it indicates that the whales are positioned for an imminent price breakout.
Given that the historical buy/sell patterns of the whale cohort has been closely correlated to previous XRP price upswings, strategic retail traders could be incentivized to join the buying wave.
If this evolves into a bull rally as predicted, XRP price will likely rise toward the $0.70 territory in the weeks ahead. Such a significant upswing could see XRP reclaim its 5th spot ahead of Solana.