Despite the slow XRP price movements, whales continue to enter the ecosystem, accumulating more tokens ahead of a potential breakout.
Recent data from analytics platform Glassnode reveals that the number of wallets holding 10,000 XRP tokens or more has reached an all-time high. Specifically, addresses with 10K+ tokens have now surpassed 300,000.
Market commentators interpret this development as growing confidence in XRP among whales, who are accumulating the coin while its price remains relatively low. Notably, with XRP trading at $2.17, purchasing 10,000 tokens costs $21,700, a sum that is out of reach for some retail investors.
XRP Price Versus Whale Accumulation
The chart highlighting the surge in wallets holding over 10K XRP shows a notable divergence from XRP’s price movement. From November 2024 onward, the rising price of XRP coincided with a similar increase in wallets accumulating 10K+ XRP.
By January 2025, XRP reached the peak of its rally, with the price surpassing $3. Since then, a retracement has occurred, with XRP occasionally dipping below $2. Nonetheless, its price has mostly remained above $2.
However, the number of holders with 10K XRP has not declined. Instead, it has continued to trend upward despite the discouraging price performance over the past three months.
According to crypto educator Henry, who shared this chart on X, the uptick in the number of these XRP holders implies that big players are positioning themselves for XRP’s potential breakout. This contrasts with the panic and anxiety observed among retail investors.
Notably, additional data from analytics platform Santiment further confirms the accumulation trend in the XRP ecosystem. Specifically, whales acquired over 900 million XRP in the last 30 days—worth more than $1.8 billion.
These whales hold between 10 million and 100 million XRP. Their continued accumulation, despite the recent bearish price action, shows their confidence in XRP’s future performance.
Whales bought around 900 million $XRP over the past month! pic.twitter.com/k3UyFMkJLq
— Ali (@ali_charts) May 2, 2025
How Retail Investors Compare to Whales in XRP Holdings
Interestingly, wallets holding 10,000 XRP or more are among the wealthiest XRP investors. According to data from the XRP Rich List, holding just 8,913 XRP places one in the top 5% of all XRP holders. For context, only 322,104 wallets hold this amount or more.
Meanwhile, wallets with 11,150 XRP tokens are in the top 4%, with just 257,683 addresses in this tier. In contrast, the vast majority of the 6.442 million XRP wallets—specifically 5.22 million—hold just 500 XRP or fewer.
Where Is XRP’s Price Headed?
Although XRP’s current price does not yet reflect the ongoing whale accumulation, some believe the impact may soon become visible. According to analyst Ali Martinez, XRP may be preparing for a short-term breakout to $2.90. He cited a bullish inverse head-and-shoulders pattern as the basis for his outlook.
Meanwhile, analyst Jason has suggested that XRP could target $5 before the end of the month. Over the longer term, other analysts have predicted potential price targets ranging from $10 to as high as $40.
