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Policy

Are XRP Whales Making a Big Return?

Whale Transactions Spike on the XRP Ledger Large-holder activity on the XRP Ledger surged sharply on August 18, with transactions above $1 million jumping 280% in a single 24-hour period. Mor

AnonymousCryptoCompass newsroom
August 18, 2026
2 min read
NEWS
Are XRP Whales Making a Big Return?
CryptoCompass editorial visual for policy coverage.

Whale Transactions Spike on the XRP Ledger

Large-holder activity on the XRP Ledger surged sharply on August 18, with transactions above $1 million jumping 280% in a single 24-hour period. More than 38 such large transactions were recorded across the network, according to on-chain analyst Ali Martinez, citing data from Santiment.

The spike adds to an accumulation trend that has been building for weeks. Large holders accumulated more than 380 million $XRP over the preceding week, with that buying lifting large-holder holdings to 8.13 billion XRP.

About 81% of XRP withdrawals from Binance were reportedly sent to private wallets, though such transfers do not by themselves confirm bullish sentiment or an intention to hold.

Divergence Between Whales and Price Performance

The buying stands in stark contrast to broader market weakness. Blockchain analytics platform Santiment reported that the number of wallets holding at least 1 million XRP has increased by 32 over the past three months to around 2,033,while retail traders have been selling, causing the XRP market cap to drop by 29% over the same period.

The picture was not always this consistent. In June, large holders moved in the opposite direction, selling roughly 30 million $XRP, underscoring how quickly sentiment among big players can shift.

Santiment noted that whales have been turning bullish on XRP partly because of the growing use of the RLUSD stablecoin and the expansion of the XRP Ledger into tokenization, payments, and settlement. Still, analysts caution that whale buying alone does not guarantee a price recovery. Large transactions can include exchange deposits, withdrawals, internal transfers, and custody reorganizations, meaning identifying genuine accumulation requires deeper destination analysis and exchange flow data.

Sources:Crypto Times: XRP Whales Accumulate 72M Tokens as Price Trades Near $1CoinGape: XRP Price Prediction as Whale Wallets Surge Amid Rising Network ActivityCrypto.news: XRP Price Slips Below $1 as Whale Activity Jumps 280%