XRP climbs to $3 – But $6B whale sell off raises red flags!
Even though the price jumped past $2.95 support and the exchange reserves saw a drop, large XRP holders remained bearish.
Key Takeaways
The whale flows were strongly negative once again, reflecting a distribution phase, even though XRP traded at $3. Investors and traders should not expect an immediate recovery; bulls must bide their time and wait out the selling storm.
Ripple [XRP] was back above the $2.95-$3 zone. On the price charts, this area was crucial for both bulls and bears, since it was a key psychological level.
Yet, evidence of whales trimming their holdings meant that XRP investors have reason to be worried.
Popular crypto analyst Ali Martinez pointed out that whale wallets added to the selling pressure on XRP by offloading large amounts of XRP.
AMBCrypto found that wallets with 1 million to 1 billion XRP tokens reduced their combined holdings from 10 billion to 8 billion. This meant that $6 billion worth of XRP was sold by large players.
In a CryptoQuant Insights post, user The Enigma Trader observed that the 90-day whale flow moving average flipped sharply negative. This had occurred in early 2025 and was a sign of distribution from whales.
In May and June, the metric was in positive territory, witnessing more than 5 million XRP inflows to whale wallets. It represented accumulation while the price consolidated in the $2-$2.4 region.
In order for XRP prices to begin a recovery, the metric needs to see sustained positive netflows for whales. As things stand, the sentiment remains bearish.
Another metric corroborates bearish XRP whale activity
The 30DMA of whale to exchange flow saw a sharp uptick in January 2025. This supported the whale netflow metric. Moreover, over the past month, the whale-to-exchange flow increased again as XRP set a new all-time high.
Despite the retracement from the $3.65 ATH, the 30 DMA has not begun to recede. This showed that investors need to be patient, as a recovery was not yet underway.
On the plus side, the price retracement gave long-term holders a reason to load up on more XRP. While the average whale flow was bearish, the Exchange Reserve on Binance has fallen from 3.009 billion on the 19th of July to 2.88 billion XRP, at press time.
This represented an outward flow of XRP from Binance and can be assumed to be an accumulation from holders.
A continued drop in exchange reserves would be a welcome sight for XRP investors, as would a positive whale netflow.
