thecryptobasic.com
The available supply of $XRP on some crypto exchanges is starting to decline as the coin undergoes a major price surge.
This week, $XRP’s price broke back above $2.4 for the first time since November 2024. The move was widely celebrated in the crypto community, especially since it came without any $XRP-specific news, Ripple updates, or regulatory milestones. Market commentators have begun theorizing that a move to new peaks could be underway.
Amid the frenzy, widely followed market watcher Xaif tweeted that the $XRP reserves of major South Korean exchange Upbit are declining, citing data from CryptoQuant.
Indeed, CryptoQuant’s data shows Upbit had an $XRP reserve of 6.264 billion $XRP as of January 1. As of today, the available balance is 6.233 billion, meaning 31 million $XRP have been moved out of the exchange in just one week.
Xaif pointed out that when a larger volume of $XRP flowed out of Upbit back in November 2024, it coincided with the token’s price moving from $0.5 to $3.34—a nearly 7X surge. With outflows resuming again, he suggests another repeat of history may be underway.
Other South Korean Exchanges See Dip in $XRP Reserve
A similar trend is observable with Bithumb, another major South Korean cryptocurrency exchange. It had 1.818 billion $XRP as of January 3 but currently holds 1.808 billion — a drop of 10 million $XRP in five days.
Likewise, Bitstamp held 20.19 million $XRP as of January 5 but now holds 15.5 million—a 5 million $XRP decline in three days. Other exchanges also seeing declines in $XRP reserves in the first week of January include KuCoin and HTX Global.
Diverging Trends
Interestingly, during this time, exchanges like Binance, Bitfinex, and Bitget are all reporting a surge in $XRP reserves over the last few days. For instance, Binance had 2.639 billion $XRP as of December 29 but now holds 2.687 billion.
Similarly, Bitget had 2.705 million $XRP as of December 18 but now controls more than twice that volume, with its $XRP reserve now at 6.044 million.
Notably, exchanges that recorded surges in $XRP reserves saw most of the increase occurring in January as $XRP’s price rose. This suggests that while South Korean market participants likely moved their $XRP to private wallets, other traders in international markets transferred theirs to liquid exchanges to capitalize on the rally.
This may explain why $XRP’s price has dipped 7.34% in the last 24 hours to $2.1, just two days after trading at $2.41. Essentially, some traders have chosen to realize gains without waiting for a potential run to new all-time highs.
Emerging Trend in $XRP ETFs
$XRP ETFs have also started recording outflows. At the close of business on Wednesday, $XRP ETFs recorded $40.8 million in outflows for the first time since inception. This was influenced by a massive $47.25 million sale by 21Shares $XRP ETFs.
Other ETFs, like Canary, Bitwise, and Franklin, registered inflows, but these were far insufficient to counter the selling pressure from 21Shares. Meanwhile, $XRP ETFs continue to boast $1.53 billion in total assets.
Despite ETF outflows and a massive spike in Binance’s reserves, optimism remains high for $XRP’s price this year.