XRP Whales Hit Record High as Price Surges 26% in One Week

The number of wallets holding at least 1 million XRP tokens has surged to an all-time high, coinciding with a 26% price increase over the past week.

Onchain analytics platform Santiment reported on Friday that the total number of such “whale” wallets has risen to 2,743, marking a significant accumulation trend.

Santiment highlighted that not only are more whales entering the market, but the total XRP supply they control is also growing, a bullish sign for the fourth-largest cryptocurrency by market cap.

XRP Whales Control Over 47 Billion Tokens

Data shows that wallets holding 1 million or more XRP collectively control over 47.32 billion tokens.

XRP’s price reached $2.80 at the time of writing, according to CoinMarketCap, after a sharp 10% jump within the past 24 hours.

The sudden surge wiped out approximately $31.44 million in XRP short positions, as reported by CoinGlass data.

Just a month ago, XRP had been consolidating between $1.90 and $2.90 for nearly 200 days, with traders uncertain about its next move.

The recent rally aligns with a broader market upswing, as Bitcoin hit consecutive all-time highs, $112,000 on Wednesday, $116,500 on Thursday, and $118,780 on Friday.

Ethereum also rose sharply, gaining over 17% during the week, trading near $2,960.

Santiment suggests that this strong performance across multiple cryptocurrencies signals the start of an altcoin season.

“The data confirms that, for now, it has,” the platform said.

It added that as long as Bitcoin remains above the psychological support level of $110,000, investors are likely to continue shifting profits into altcoins like XRP, fueling further market momentum.

Last month, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse revealed the company will withdraw its cross-appeal against the SEC, adding that the regulator is also expected to drop its own appeal.

The announcement followed a U.S. district court decision rejecting a joint request from Ripple and the SEC to reduce Ripple’s $125 million civil penalty and overturn the ruling that classified Ripple’s institutional XRP sales as securities transactions.

In her ruling, Judge Analisa Torres noted Ripple’s readiness to “push the boundaries” of the earlier summary judgment, suggesting a risk of future violations.

XRP Ledger Rolls Out New Upgrade Amid Rising Interest

As reported, RippleX, the development arm of Ripple, has rolled out version 2.5.0 of the XRP Ledger, introducing several protocol upgrades aimed at strengthening network functionality and security.

RippleX engineer Mayukha Vadari has called the upgrade “possibly the best single lineup of amendments” ever released, introducing significant improvements to token management and transaction processing.

The XLS-85 amendment upgrades the escrow system by allowing third-party issued tokens, including stablecoins, and introduces multi-purpose tokens designed for institutional applications.

The new update came after the XRP Ledger recorded a surge in user activity, with the number of daily active addresses climbing from an average of 35,000 to over 295,000.

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