$XRP Whales Now Control 26.8% of Supply

The year 2023 has brought a noticeable decline in whale activity on the XRP Ledger when compared to the vibrant scenes of 2021 and 2022.

However, while the giants of the XRP seas seem to have gone quieter, a different class of marine creatures, including key shark and whale addresses, continues to accumulate the network’s native token, $XRP.

This insight comes from the on-chain analytics experts at Santiment, who’ve been keeping a close eye on the XRP Ledger.

They’ve uncovered that wallets holding between 100,000 and 100 million XRP tokens now command a hefty $7.89 billion in XRP, compared to around $7.16 billion just a year ago.

This accumulation now means that these substantial holders control roughly 26.8% of the entire supply of this cryptocurrency.

Santiment’s post also highlights that the XRP Ledger is currently witnessing an average of fewer than 4,000 transactions exceeding $100,000 per week.

This is a drop below its historical averages. This quieter whale activity might raise questions among some market observers, suggesting that it could signify a shift in broader interest or perhaps a shift in focus towards other emerging digital assets.

The ongoing accumulation by these key addresses, even as whale activity appears to calm down, could be an indication of a long-term perspective rather than a short-term trading approach.

This philosophy often echoes the timeless investment adage, “The big money is not in the buying and selling, but in the waiting.”

In recent news, Ripple’s CTO, David Schwartz, revealed that his late father invested in “over a million XRP” back in April 2014 when the tokens were just $0.005 each.

This revelation has sparked significant reactions, driven by the potential returns from such an early investment in the cryptocurrency.

It’s important to note that this investment occurred during a time when XRP was trading near its historical lows, a fact supported by market data from that period.

In December 2013, the cryptocurrency’s price was at $0.061, just before it began a correction that led to its historic lows.

Currently, XRP is priced at $0.521, which means that the estimated $5,000 used to purchase 1 million tokens at $0.005 each has now grown to approximately $520,000.

At the peak of the cryptocurrency’s value, the same tokens were worth over $3.3 million, delivering returns of over 65,000%. As of now, assuming Schwartz has not sold the tokens, the returns are still over 10,300%.