Since December 2021, the so-called “mega whales” have amassed almost $712 million in XRP tokens.
In the last three months, Ripple (XRP) addresses with at least 10 million native units have resumed accumulating more, a similar pattern to that which preceded a strong rise for the XRP/USD and XRP/BTC pairs in late 2020.
XRP’s’mega whales’ are making a comeback.
Santiment, an analytics firm, has noticed a 76 percent increase in XRP “mega whale” addresses since December 2021, with a total of 897 million tokens added to their holdings, worth over $712 million as of Feb. 18.
The platform went on to say that the XRP accumulation over the last three months was the second greatest in the coin’s history. Whales depositing a total of 1.29 billion XRP to their addresses in November–December 2020 was the first big accumulation.
Interestingly. The influx of XRP into whale addresses was timed to coincide with a price increase against Bitcoin. Between November 1, 2020, and November 24, 2020, the XRP/BTC exchange rate increased by approximately 150 percent, reaching 3,502 satoshis.
XRP also gained ground against the dollar, with the price of XRP/USD rising by more than 250 percent to $0.82 in the same time frame. As a result, Santiment noted in the chart above that the recent rise in whales-led accumulation raised the possibility of a similar upside trend in the XRP market.
Nonetheless, it’s important to note that XRP’s big increase in November 2020 was mostly due to Ripple’s decision to buy $46 million worth of XRP to “promote healthy markets.”
The price of XRP is continuing to rise.
The recent bout of XRP accumulation by whales coincided with a minor recovery in recent weeks.
The price of XRP has risen by as much as 65 percent to $0.91 in less than three weeks after it hit a low of $0.55 on January 22, 2022. Nonetheless, the price had plummeted to roughly $0.77 as of Feb. 18, indicating that bulls were reeling under the strain of the 50-week exponential moving average (50-week EMA; the red wave in the chart below).
signalling that a selloff near the 50-week EMA might set the stage for a longer-term decline to the 200-week EMA (the blue wave) near $0.54.
A significant rise above the 50-day EMA, on the other hand, might send the price to its multi-month falling trendline resistance near $1.
The price behaviour on shorter-timeframe charts also points to a rally toward $1 in the near future. On a four-hour chart, for example, XRP has been forming what appears to be a bull pennant setup, which is backed up by an ongoing consolidation in a symmetrical triangle.
The bull pennant setup’s main premise is that once the price clearly breaks above the structure’s top trendline, the price will move upward, aiming for levels over $1.
Disclaimer: These are the writer’s opinions and should not be considered investment advice. Readers should do their own research.
