The XRP price dipped in 2022 during the crypto winter, and the back-and-forth legal exchange between Ripple Labs and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has not helped matters.
However, the token is still attracting interest from whales and institutional investors. XRP still has a chance of recovery, which seems to be the motivation behind the whale mass acquisition of the token.
Whales Seize The Dip
WhaleAlert reported that whales had moved 128 million-plus XRP worth close to $53 million in the last day. The largest whale activity recorded in that period was the movement of 35 million XRP worth around $15 million to the Bitstamp exchange.
According to the data, whales have purchased up to 69 million XRP tokens in 24 hours. The first accumulation noted by Whale Alert is the addition of 33 million XRP (approx worth above $13 million) to a Bitstamp address.
33,000,000 #XRP (13,274,704 USD) transferred from unknown wallet to #Bitstamphttps://t.co/YZirFauiLJ
— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) January 24, 2023
Another large whale accumulation was 36 million tokens sent to a Bitstamp address worth 14,972,855 USD at the time of the transaction.
— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) January 25, 2023
Whalestats also reports that XRP was the most traded token among the top 100 BSC whales. The top 100 whales on this list currently hold more than $28.6 million worth of XRP, which accounts for 2.5% of their entire portfolio.
Over the past few days, there has been increased whale activity on the XRP network. WhaleAlert reported massive transfers exceeding 600 million XRP tokens between anonymous whale addresses. The whale transfers come amid rising crypto inflows from investors since the beginning of the year.
A single transaction, as reported by WhaleAlert, carried 254,594,795 XRP, which amounted to $107,778,830 between two unnamed whale addresses. Another was about 221,500,500 XRP worth $89,110,472 from an unknown whale address to a Bittrex-linked wallet. Each of the transfers occurred in single transactions.
Ripple Versus SEC: Is The End In Sight?
The ongoing legal drama between Ripple Labs, Ripple (XRP) developers, and the SEC will likely end in 2023. Brad Garlinghouse, head of Ripple Labs, said he hopes for a conclusion in the ongoing saga in the first half of 2023.
The SEC sued Ripple Labs in 2020 for selling XRP tokens to the public, which it says were unregistered securities. The SEC has repeatedly classified XRP as securities, with the Ripple defense team objecting to the idea. Garlinghouse stated that the judgment would take some time, but his confidence in Ripple’s chances of a victory is high.
However, he emphasized that a settlement is unlikely since SEC chairman Gary Gensler has labeled all cryptos as securities. Both parties have completed the final step in their motion for summary judgment and are now anticipating the court’s decision.
Meanwhile, the lead counsel to the defendant in the XRP case, Stuart Alderoty, said the lawsuit’s outcome would define what tokens are securities in the crypto space. He added that the ruling would impact crypto asset regulations in the industry.