XRP’s largest holders have continued accumulating tokens while smaller investors have reduced their positions, with whale wallets adding 2.8% more XRP over the past five weeks as the cryptocurrency recovered above $1.16.
The payments-focused digital asset has gained more than 8% during this period, but the market has shown a clear split between the behavior of major holders and retail participants.
Data from Santiment shows that wallets holding between 100,000 and 100 million XRP increased their balances over the last five weeks. This accumulation by whales and large investors occurred as XRP climbed from around $1 at the end of June to nearly $1.16, suggesting stronger market participants are supporting the recent rebound.
In contrast, smaller XRP wallets have reduced their holdings by 5.2% over the same period. The decline among smaller holders reflects growing capitulation from retail investors, creating a sharp difference between selling pressure from small wallets and buying activity from larger participants.
Santiment said this divergence could support a bullish outlook for XRP, noting that the token’s price movements have historically been more closely linked to the actions of major holders than the smallest retail investors.
The analytics firm stated on X that XRP has often moved alongside large stakeholders while moving against smaller wallet trends, making the current accumulation pattern a potentially positive signal for the asset.
The shift in holder behavior comes alongside several developments supporting XRP’s long-term outlook, including increased institutional interest through potential ETF products and expanding XRP Ledger applications in payments, tokenization, and the RLUSD stablecoin ecosystem.
These factors have kept XRP in focus and may be boosting confidence among experienced investors, even as smaller market participants continue to step away.
