Ripple (XRP): movements from a crypto whale

This week, an XRP whale moved millions of tokens to unknown exchanges and wallets, it seems that in the last thirty days Ripple’s crypto has gained more than 17% in value against the US dollar. 

Ripple (XRP) is a cryptocurrency operating on an open-source network and decentralized platform. It was born in 2013 in San Francisco at Ripple Labs, where it continues to be developed. 

Movements over the past 7 days by XRP Whale

The crypto community noticed significant movements of XRP during the past week, when one Whale moved 143,000,000 XRP worth over $55 million on 9 December and another moved 40,000,000 XRP worth over $15 million from the Bitso exchange to an unknown wallet. 

On Saturday, 10 December 2022, the XRP cryptocurrency traded at prices ranging from $0.386 to $0.390. As we know, XRP is the seventh largest crypto asset in terms of market capitalization, as the token’s total valuation today is $19.60 billion. 

On Saturday, data showed that in the past twenty-four hours there had been about $423 million in trading volume of XRP worldwide. However, among the market gains, last month were many XRP Whales that moved a significant number of tokens to and from exchanges and even to unknown wallets. 

For example, Whale Alert detected the movement of 40 million XRP from the Bitso trading platform to an unknown wallet on 8 December 2022. In another case, Whale Alert came across a transfer of 143 million XRP worth over $55 million on 9 December. 

On the same day as the 40 million transfer, XRP Whale moved 27 million XRP to Bitso, another 40 million tokens were moved to Bitstamp, and 37.7 million XRP from Bitso to an unknown wallet. 

On 8 December, 60,000,000 XRP were moved to Bitstamp, and the day before, on 7 December 2022, a user moved 35 million XRP to Bitstamp. On the same day, 50 million XRP was transferred from Ripple to an unknown wallet and also a whopping 324,254,650 XRP with an estimated value of $123.20 million was transferred from Bittrex to an unknown entity.

There was a large number of mega XRP Whales movements last week, to say the least, and on 7 December 2022, 3.8 billion XRP was moved in eight transactions from Bittrex to unknown wallets, according to data recorded by Whale Alert.

Binance holds the largest XRP wallet with 76,300,000 XRP, according to sources. The list also shows that the second largest XRP address belongs to Binance, with 26,000,000 XRP. On the other hand, the third largest XRP wallet owned by an unknown wallet holds 22,728,470 XRP, according to the data. 

Ripple price outlook: above key level? 

Given the recent news, one wonders whether XRP Whale movements could move prices above the key level they have reached. Indeed, given the significant movements of Ripple XRP coins on the chain discussed above, we see prices approaching a key psychological level. But can they break out? 

Usually, Whales activity is an indicator of something bigger brewing. However, significant price movements have yet to materialize.

It is worth noting that there was also a spike in active XRP addresses earlier this month. The analytics provider reported that the supply of XRP addresses Whales held rose from 16.7% to 18.3% in five weeks.

Thus, all this on-chain activity could be a perfect storm that could lead to a price breakout. The key psychological level indicated above is around $0.40, which has not been breached in the past two weeks.

The cross-border payments asset is currently up more than 2% on the day. As a result, XRP is trading at $0.391. At any rate, it has consolidated over the past month and remains within that range for now. The price is currently down 88.5% from its January 2018 all-time high of $3.40.

SEC vs Ripple: the crypto’s victory or defeat will determine its fate 

The SEC vs Ripple case that has been holding the entire crypto industry with bated breath for years could come to a conclusion by the end of the year, according to some sources. Hence, a win against the SEC, even if next year, could push XRP much higher. 

Likewise, a defeat in court is likely to be catastrophic. Nevertheless, during the hearing, Ripple recorded minor victories, with the chairman ruling in favor of the company on specific elements.

Interestingly, based on the favorable ruling, several legal experts argued that Ripple has a chance to win the case. In particular, US attorney Jeremy Hogan predicted possible outcomes before the verdict, noting that there is a chance for both sides to emerge victorious. 

Specifically, Hogan predicted four possible outcomes of the SEC case against Ripple. Ripple could win, since the summary judgment said XRP was not sold as a security. In fact, the basis of the prediction was that Ripple had no legal obligations to the purchaser of XRP.

In a worst-case scenario, however, Ripple has a 30% chance of losing. In fact, the judge could rule in favor of the SEC if the regulator’s evidence shows that Ripple used XRP sales to build its business of feeding cross-border payments.

Hogan announced a third possibility: the case could end in a tie, as there is a 19.1% chance that the judge may not rule in favor of one of the parties.

Finally, in a fourth possibility, the lawyer noted that there is always room for the judge to issue an unexpected verdict, pointing out that this is something common in litigation. In conclusion, the official prediction of the lawsuit is a 50.12% chance that Ripple will win and a 29.88% chance that the SEC will win, according to Hogan.