Ripple: Will waning whale activity affect XRP?

• Whale activity declined despite Ripple’s legal victory.
• Ripple’s ongoing development efforts and legal battles could impact XRP’s market performance.

Despite Ripple’s [XRP] recent legal victory against the SEC, XRP’s whale activity witnessed a notable decline this year. According to data from Santiment, the level of whale activity in the XRP market has been lower compared to the previous two years.

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Whales take a break

However, this reduction in whale activity didn’t deter large holders from accumulating more XRP. Wallets holding between 100,000 – 100 million XRP held approximately $7.89 billion worth of coins, compared to $7.16 billion a year ago.

This suggested that while some large investors were less active, others continued to invest in XRP.

Source: Santiment

The decrease in whale activity could have various implications for the XRP market. On the one hand, it might indicate a degree of caution or uncertainty among larger investors, potentially stemming from regulatory concerns or market conditions.

On the other hand, the ongoing accumulation by key addresses may signal confidence in the future prospects of XRP.

New developments

In terms of recent developments, Ripple was working on performance testing for the XLS-30 Automated Market Maker (AMM) as part of the rippled 1.12.0 upgrade. This amendment aims to bring automated swap, trading, and liquidity provisioning capabilities to the XRP Ledger, introducing new transaction types that integrate with the payment engine.

1/ Extensive performance testing of the XLS-30 #AMM has now been completed.

XLS-30 is a proposed amendment as part of the rippled 1.12.0 upgrade. If adopted, it will bring automated swap, trading, and liquidity provisioning capabilities to the #XRPLedger.https://t.co/Cz1w76uc8c

— RippleX (@RippleXDev) October 6, 2023

 The legal landscape

In the legal battle between Ripple and the SEC, there were significant recent developments. Judge Torres denied the SEC’s Motion to File an Interlocutory Appeal. An interlocutory appeal is an appeal that occurs before the trial has concluded.

In her previous ruling on 13 July, Judge Torres determined that Ripple did not violate federal securities laws by selling XRP on public exchanges. The SEC sought to appeal this decision, arguing that it could have implications for numerous similar lawsuits.

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However, Judge Torres disagreed, stating that there were no substantial grounds for different interpretations of her findings, and that an appeal at this stage would not significantly advance the case toward a resolution.

The Court’s July 13 ruling was, and remains, the law of the land. XRP is not a security. https://t.co/NxOXZZtSMG

— Stuart Alderoty (@s_alderoty) October 3, 2023

As for XRP’s market performance, at the time of writing, it was trading at $0.501. Over the past month, the total number of XRP holders increased, indicating ongoing interest in the cryptocurrency, despite Ripple’s legal challenges.

Source: Santiment