Whales push XRP back to 2018 levels

Ripple’s XRP price hit $2.88 for the first time since January 2018. Analysts at Santiment argue that large whale purchases were the principal catalyst.

?? XRP investors are pleased to see the #3 market cap asset reach $2.69 today for the first time since December 17, 2024. This is being supported by continued enormous accumulation from wallets holding 1M-10M XRP, who own over 37% more coins than they did 2 months ago… pic.twitter.com/G3a3N5iSAS

— Santiment (@santimentfeed) January 14, 2025

The firm flagged “significant accumulation” by wallets holding between 1m and 10m XRP. Since 12 November 2024, whale addresses have added 1.43bn coins — an increase equal to 37.4% of their combined balances.

Shawn Dawson, head of research at the Derive protocol, explained to Cointelegraph reporters that the positive price action likely reflects expectations of an XRP ETF approval in 2025.

JPMorgan’s analysts reckon that spot ETF inflows into SOL and XRP could outpace Ethereum products within six months of launch.

Dawson thinks that as bitcoin is “bought up”, investor interest may rotate into altcoins such as XRP, supporting further gains.

He also noted that, helped by the new US crypto policy, the court dispute between Ripple and SEC, ongoing since late 2020, could finally conclude this year.

At the time of writing, XRP trades at $2.88, with a market capitalisation of $165.92bn. The token is up 25% on the week.

15 January 2025 | 18:47Update:

Amid a surge in trading volumes and the release of the US consumer price index for December 2024, XRP tested $3.

In December 2024, Ripple received approval to launch trading in the RLUSD stablecoin.