The XRP price saw a good run through the weekend into the new month of October, and as the likes of Bitcoin surged, XRP bulls pushed the price above $0.54. However, as the euphoria subsided, the altcoin saw a drawdown that brought it back down to the $0.50 level once again. So, what was behind this decline?
XRP Price Tanks As Whale Sells Big
Naturally, when investors start selling their tokens, it has an impact on the price of altcoins such as XRP. And when those sellers are large whales, the impact on the XRP price is orders of magnitudes higher than what it would be if smaller holders were selling.
This was the case on Monday when whale tracking platform Whale Alert caught wind of a large transaction that explained the price decline. In the post, the whale tracker revealed that a single whale had transferred a total of 28.5 million XRP tokens and the destination was to the Bitstamp crypto exchange.
At the time of the transfer, the whale transaction was worth a little over $14.7 million, which is significant when the liquidity is taken into account. The destination being a centralized exchange shows that more than likely, the whale did so to sell the coins.
🚨 28,500,000 #XRP (14,701,380 USD) transferred from unknown wallet to #Bitstamphttps://t.co/mQjywwuEYd
— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) October 2, 2023
Usually, whales use centralized exchanges for their deeper liquidity which is able to handle large volumes while only having minimal fees. After the whale completed this transaction, the XRP price began its descent and has fallen over 3% since then, proving that the whale had probably sold the coins. This is a solid reason for the fall in XRP price.
XRP falls to $0.50 | Source: XRPUSD on Tradingview.com
Not The First XRP Whale To Sell
While the whale from Monday was the most prominent amid the price decline, it is not the only whale XRP transaction that has been caught this week. A previous whale transaction took place on Sunday and was reported by Whale Alert once more.
The transaction was carrying the exact same amount as the Monday transaction, a total of 28.5 million tokens which were worth approximately $14.74 million at the time. This transaction was also headed for the Bitstamp exchange.
🚨 28,500,000 #XRP (14,739,997 USD) transferred from unknown wallet to #Bitstamphttps://t.co/hmT9zn0T3C
— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) October 1, 2023
Interestingly, the transaction took place just an hour after Ripple had begun its scheduled unlock on Sunday. In total, the crypto firm had unlocked 1 billion tokens, although 800 million tokens have since been sent back to escrow. But it looks like the whale had timed its transaction to follow the Ripple unlock, likely expecting a decline in price as new coins flow into circulation.
At the time of writing, the XRP price is still nursing losses of 2.33% in the last day. However, it has seen small gains of 1.94% over the past week, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
Featured image from CoinChapter, chart from Tradingview.com