XRP’s confidence problem — Why did David Schwartz sell if whales are buying?

David Schwartz, the co-creator of the XRP Ledger, confirmed on 11th November that his XRP holdings fell from roughly 26 million to about 3 million. When describing his intentions behind the move, he clarified,

I wish I was more comfortable with risk, but I’m just not that person.

The timing of this announcement landed just as XRP lost the $1.15 support zone, leaving the altcoin to trade near $1.05 at press time.

A broken price trend

XRP’s RSI had a reading of 32, highlighting the altcoin’s weak momentum. This also implied it wasn’t exactly oversold. $1.00 – $1.03 is the next demand zone, but sustained crashing of the price will open up $0.85 – $0.88.

CoinGecko’s data showed that the market cap fell from $81 billion on 3rd November to $61 billion on 10th November — a $20 billion wipeout in a week. At press time, though, the market cap had risen slightly to $67.22 billion.

The risk-adjusted picture seemed to be just as concerning. According to CryptoQuant data (via ArabxChain), XRP’s Sharpe-like ratio on Binance plummeted to roughly -0.32 as of 10th November, hitting a multi-month low.

A negative Sharpe-like ratio means that the returns XRP generated didn’t even compensate investors. Instead, they bore the risk for no reason while the price cratered from $1.25 to $1.04.

Whales take the opposite route!

Now, here’s where it gets interesting — On 11th November, analyst Ali Martinez showed that XRP whales continued to accumulate 65.32 million tokens over four days, thereby pushing their holdings to 4.00 billion.

AMBCrypto previously reported that wallets holding at least 1 million XRP bounced to 2,147, a 2026 high, even as the market cap fell by 29%.

Unfortunately for XRP, wallet balance changes don’t prove intent. There is ultimately no proof that whales are accumulating to sell.

Santiment underlined this notion, observing that the growth during price weakness merely “suggests conviction.” So, for now, the 1M+ wallet count is the metric to track. If it keeps climbing without a price hike, XRP’s bull case will get concerning.

What XRP’s conflicting nature means for you

XRP is simply caught between two clashing signals. The first is the insider who knows the ledger best and holds almost none of the altcoin. The second group are the largest players in the game, who are persistent in their buying.

The chart presently favors the former CTO’s caution, not the whales’ conviction.

Final Summary

• David Schwartz confirmed his XRP holdings fell from 26 million to 3 million. 
• Whales added 65.32 million XRP over four days, and the 1M+ wallet count hit a 2026 high.