The XRP Recovery May Be Telling a Bigger Story

Key Takeaways:

• XRP whales are accumulating while smaller holders continue selling.

• Lower whale exchange deposits suggest reduced near-term selling pressure.

• ETF inflows and improving regulation continue to support XRP’s outlook.

 

A price rebound alone rarely explains itself. But when it’s accompanied by a clear split in who’s buying and who’s selling, that gap often carries more signal than the candle chart does on its own.

XRP trades at $1.11, up 0.6% over the past seven days, according to CoinGecko. That modest weekly gain sits on top of a sharper move: according to on-chain data from Santiment, wallets holding between 100,000 and 100 million XRP have added 2.8% to their combined holdings over the past five weeks, while wallets holding less than 0.01 XRP have shed 5.2% of theirs over the same stretch.

A Rebound With a Clear Divide Underneath It

Looking at the seven-day chart, XRP spent July 17 through July 20 consolidating in a tight band near $1.08 to $1.10, before a sharp rally on July 21 and 22 pushed price to a two-week high above $1.16. That move has since cooled, with XRP settling back to $1.11 as of July 23 — a pullback, but one that still holds well above where the week began. Santiment’s wallet data lines up almost exactly with that window, with whale accumulation building steadily through the same five weeks that took XRP from roughly $1.00 at the end of June to its recent high near $1.16.

Why the Whale-Retail Split Matters

XRP has historically tended to track the behavior of its largest holders more closely than its smallest ones, which is why this divergence carries weight beyond the raw percentages. Reinforcing that read, whale deposits to Binance — a proxy for large holders preparing to sell — have fallen to just 25.3 million XRP, the lowest level since January 2025, down sharply from a peak of roughly 583 million XRP moved onto the exchange earlier this year. Fewer large holders sending coins to exchanges typically means less near-term selling pressure sitting on order books.

The Catalysts Sitting Behind the Chart

This accumulation isn’t happening without context. Spot XRP ETF products have been pulling in fresh inflows through the past week, regulatory uncertainty around Ripple has continued to ease following its SEC settlement, and the XRP Ledger’s expanding use in payments, tokenization, and the RLUSD stablecoin has kept institutional attention on the asset. Progress on the CLARITY Act in the Senate has added another layer of optimism, even as its final passage remains unresolved.

None of this guarantees XRP holds above $1.11, let alone reclaims its recent high. Whale accumulation can precede further gains, but it can just as easily reflect patience rather than urgency. Still, when the largest holders keep adding while the smallest wallets keep exiting, the more interesting question isn’t where price is today — it’s which side of that trade turns out to be right.