Back in July when Judge Analisa Torres first declared XRP programmatic sales do not qualify as securities, the token price had rallied. However, now that the euphoria from the ruling has worn off and the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has begun to fight back, the coin’s price is correcting back downward, prompting massive sell-offs of the token.
Whale Moves 29.3 Million XRP To Exchange
On-chain whale tracker has flagged an XRP transaction that could spell bearish pressure for the price of the cryptocurrency. According to the post made on X (formerly Twitter), a single whale moved a total of 29.3 million tokens to a centralized exchange. The total stash of tokens which were worth a little over $15.13 million at the time were transferred to the Bitstamp exchange.
🚨 29,300,000 #XRP (15,130,884 USD) transferred from unknown wallet to #Bitstamphttps://t.co/DhcHkKNdzc
— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) August 24, 2023
While large transactions like these are not new on the network, the destination is what has raised concerns among investors. Usually, when investors move tokens to centralized exchanges such as Bitstamp, it is to sell their tokens. This is because centralized exchanges offer lower fees and deeper liquidity, which also help to mitigate the impact of the selling.
It is possible the whale has already begun selling the coins as the XRP price saw a quick dip around the time the transaction was made. But with such a large stash, further selling could see the price fall further with such sell pressure leading to as much as a 20% decline.
Since the XRP price is already struggling, this bearish scenario becomes more likely, especially with the broader crypto market seeing widespread negative momentum and Bitcoin struggling to recover. Another dip from here would easily see the XRP price fall to the $0.48 territory.
Token price struggles amid sell-off | Source: XRPUSD on Tradingview.com
Is All Hope Lost For XRP Price?
Although the large $15 million move by the whale to Bitstamp is concerning, the bulls have not taken it lying down. A couple of hours after the transaction was first seen on the blockchain, a massive buy of $1.5 million worth of XRP was reported on the Bybit exchange.
🚀🔥 JUST IN: A whopping 1.5 million $ worth of #XRP was scooped up in an instant 10 minutes ago! Those twin green candles with massive wicks are signaling something BIG. 📈 Brace yourselves, XRP fam – looks like a major pump is on the horizon! 🌊 Who else is seeing this? Drop… pic.twitter.com/o2gy965qqF
— WallStreetBulls (@w_thejazz) August 25, 2023
The large buys led to two quick spikes in the XRP price, reaching $0.5311 briefly before going back downward. This signifies that there is a good amount of buy pressure on the digital asset that could help offset the whale selling.
Interestingly, the token is still holding above the 200-day moving average which suggests bullish sentiment, at least in the mid-term. So while a 20% can be expected due to the selling, the decline will likely not last before the digital asset picks back up.