Large investors, commonly known as whales, have accumulated over $1 billion worth of Ripple’s flagship crypto asset, XRP, over the past three weeks as interest in the digital asset rises. The surge in whale activity is seen as a significant signal of growing confidence in XRP despite its past challenges.
Market analysis platform Santiment revealed that the substantial buildup has driven XRP’s price to $2.35, marking its peak value since January 8, 2018 (nearly 7 years).
Over 679 Million Tokens Accumulated
According to the report, wallets containing between 1 million and 10 million XRP have accumulated 679.1 million tokens during this period. With XRP’s current value, these holdings are worth around $1.66 billion, highlighting the crucial influence of major investors in fueling XRP’s recent upward momentum.
In addition, another significant development is the rise in adoption, with the total count of non-empty XRP wallets exceeding 5.5 million for the first time in the token’s eight-year existence. The achievement reflects increasing interest from retail and institutional investors, further promoting positive market sentiment.
Interestingly, XRP’s surge has also altered the rankings within the crypto market, surpassing Tether USDT. Data from CoinMarketCap shows XRP’s market cap at over $138.4 billion, surpassing USDT’s over $134.1 billion. This positions XRP as the third largest crypto by market cap ranking.
Ripple’s Legal BattlesÂ
In December 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a lawsuit against Ripple for allegedly selling unregistered securities. The SEC claimed that XRP is a security rather than a commodity and that the blockchain company illegally raised $1.8 billion by selling the token.
The legal battle was one of the most crucial conflicts between a crypto firm and a regulatory body. Despite a year of court proceedings and legal filings, it remained unclear who held the advantage in the case.
On October 3, 2024, the SEC also filed an appeal in its lawsuit against Ripple Labs, challenging the court’s ruling in the United States District Court. The appeal came after US District Judge Analisa Torres ruled that Ripple breached federal securities law with its institutional sales of XRP tokens but not with its programmatic sales to retail exchanges.
Following the ruling, the judge ordered Ripple to pay a $125 million fine, lower than the $2 billion in disgorgement and civil penalties initially requested by the SEC. The ruling was seen as a significant win for the crypto industry, but the regulator’s appeal has put that victory on hold.
