XRP Whales Load Up as Smaller Investors Exit Amid Market Weakness

XRP whales have increased their holdings by 2.8% over the past five weeks while smaller investors have reduced their exposure, a trend that helped push the token’s price back above $1.16.

The payments-focused cryptocurrency has gained more than 8% during the same period, with a clear difference emerging between the accumulation behavior of large holders and smaller wallets.

According to on-chain analytics from Santiment, wallets holding between 100,000 and 100 million XRP have steadily added to their balances over the last five weeks. The accumulation from whales and large investors coincided with XRP’s recovery from around $1 at the end of June to approximately $1.16, indicating that larger market participants are showing confidence in the current price movement.

Meanwhile, smaller XRP holders have reduced their positions, with the smallest wallets selling around 5.2% of their holdings during the same timeframe. This selling activity highlights a sharp contrast between retail investor sentiment and the buying activity of larger stakeholders.

Santiment suggested that this divergence could be a positive signal for XRP, as historical trends show the token’s price has often followed the actions of major holders rather than smaller retail wallets.

The analytics firm said on X that XRP has traditionally moved in line with key stakeholders while often moving opposite to the smallest holders, meaning the current split strengthens the bullish outlook behind the recent recovery.

The shift in ownership patterns also comes as XRP benefits from several broader developments, including growing expectations around institutional investment products such as potential ETFs and continued expansion of XRP Ledger use cases involving payments, tokenization, and the RLUSD stablecoin.

These developments have helped maintain market attention on XRP and may be strengthening confidence among larger investors, even as smaller holders reduce their exposure.