Smart Money Stacks XRP While Smaller Investors Retreat From the Market

XRP whales have continued accumulating the token, increasing their holdings by 2.8% over the past five weeks, while smaller investors have been selling. The contrasting behavior between large and small holders has helped XRP climb back above $1.16.

The payments-focused cryptocurrency has gained more than 8% during this period, with on-chain data highlighting a clear difference in accumulation trends between major stakeholders and retail participants.

Data from Santiment shows that wallets holding between 100,000 and 100 million XRP have added more tokens to their balances over the past five weeks. The increase in whale holdings occurred alongside XRP’s recovery from around $1 at the end of June to nearly $1.16, indicating stronger investors may be supporting the current market rebound.

In comparison, the smallest XRP wallets have reduced their holdings by 5.2% over the same timeframe. This decline suggests retail investors have been exiting positions, creating a sharp contrast with the continued accumulation from larger holders.

Santiment described the shift as a potentially bullish signal for XRP, pointing out that the cryptocurrency has historically responded more strongly to the actions of major holders than to movements among smaller retail wallets.

The analytics firm noted on X that XRP’s price has often moved in line with key stakeholders while trending against the activity of the smallest wallet groups. The current divergence between whale accumulation and retail selling, therefore, may support the recent recovery.

The trend also coincides with several positive developments for XRP, including rising institutional interest around possible ETF products and expanding use of the XRP Ledger for payments, tokenized assets, and RLUSD stablecoin activity.

Together, these factors have kept XRP in focus and may be strengthening confidence among experienced investors, even as smaller holders reduce their exposure to the asset.