Ripple (XRP) price stabilizes above its $2.00 support during the late Asian session on Tuesday. An attempt to break out of the consolidation range the previous day left more long than short positions liquidated, dampening market sentiment. Meanwhile, with whales buying amid the ongoing consolidation, XRP could be poised for a major run targeting the psychological resistance at $3.00.
Can whale accumulation revive XRP's bullish momentum?
As XRP consolidates, signaling market indecision, whale activity per Santiment data paints a different picture. Addresses with between 10 million and 100 million XRP (black line) show a steady increase, peaking around 11.83% of the total supply on Thursday from 10.91% on April 1. This implies consistent accumulation despite growing macroeconomic risks.
Similarly, addresses holding more than 1 billion tokens (red line) have gradually increased their share. This whale cohort currently accounts for 39.37% of the total supply, compared to 37.67% towards the end of March.
However, the massive drop in the number of 24-hour active addresses on the XRP Ledger from the yearly local top of roughly 612,000 on March 19 to approximately 36,000 as of April 17 is worth noting. This indicates that fewer unique addresses interact with the network (sending or receiving XRP) and reflects reduced network activity.
Both whale cohorts have a high-risk appetite for XRP, possibly betting on the price increasing in the coming weeks or months.
According to CryptoQuant data, the cross-border money remittance token experienced a significant drop in exchange inflows. At the start of the year, exchange inflows peaked at 2.7 billion XRP, but they've since dropped significantly, with only 74 million XRP flowing into exchanges on Monday. Binance, the largest exchange by daily traded volume experienced the biggest drop, especially around February. This steady decline suggests investors are optimistic about XRP's potential and are choosing to hold the asset longer, easing sell-side pressure.