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In the past 24 hours, some huge transactions were recorded on the XRP blockchain involving the Ripple cryptocurrency as well.
XRP is the native cryptocurrency of the Ripple ecosystem, which in turn is the private company that created this ecosystem.
The transactions involving the Ripple crypto (XRP)
These transactions were revealed by Whale Alert on Twitter, and they occurred on Sunday, 8 January 2023.
There were six transactions, the largest of which involved 214 million XRP, or more than $73 million, transferred between two anonymous wallets.
🚨 🚨 🚨 🚨 🚨 🚨 🚨 214,000,000 #XRP (73,525,151 USD) transferred from unknown wallet to unknown wallethttps://t.co/l9ib80kB2M
— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) January 8, 2023
One of these million-dollar transactions also involves the Ripple wallet, which sent 100 million XRP, or about $34 million, to an anonymous wallet.
🚨 🚨 🚨 100,000,000 #XRP (34,004,188 USD) transferred from Ripple to unknown wallethttps://t.co/IsbvhyllGc
— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) January 8, 2023
There were three that had one of the Bitstamp exchange’s wallets as the recipient, totaling 106 million XRP, or more than $36 million.
In total, with these six transactions, all of which occurred on 8 January within a few hours, nearly 480 million XRP was transferred, representing a dollar equivalent of more than $164 million.
Given that these are transactions involving several players, including Ripple, Bitstamp and Bitso, it is hard to imagine that this is just a coincidence. Since they are concentrated in such a short time, it seems that they are related, and have to do with large transfers on exchanges.
It appears that the largest transaction, the 214 million XRP transaction, was made by Binance, so it could also be a simple internal shift of funds. The 100 million XRP transaction made by Ripple could also be an internal transaction, as could the 59.4 million transaction made by Bitso.
In contrast, the three transactions directed to Bitstamp appear to have come from wallets of another crypto exchange, Bittrex.
The price of the Ripple crypto (XRP)
It is worth noting that the day before, i.e., 7 January, the price of XRP was up slightly, having risen from $0.333 to $0.346.
However, on 8 January, after these transactions were made, the rise stopped, and then fell back yesterday to $0.340.
This prevented the price of XRP from taking advantage of yesterday’s small bullish trend in the crypto markets.
Taking prices from seven days ago as a reference, Bitcoin is at +3%, Ethereum at +9% and BNB even at +11.5%. The price of XRP, meanwhile, is almost unchanged over the same period.
Excluding stablecoins, the only two top 20 cryptocurrencies with worse performance than XRP over the past seven days are LEO, with -1.6%, and especially Tron with -2.3%.
It is enough to mention that Cardano (ADA) has registered +24%, and Solana +35%.
This scenario rather clearly indicates that doubts hover over XRP and Tron at this time.
The six million-dollar movements recorded on the XRP blockchain in a few hours certainly did not help, but probably still creating the greatest fears is the SEC’s lawsuit against Ripple.
The Ripple-SEC Lawsuit
The problem is that more than two years after the start of the never-ending lawsuit, there is still no end in sight.
If anything, over the course of 2022 the SEC has become increasingly aggressive on the issue of cryptocurrencies that could be considered security, so much so that doubts are beginning to surface that it is not only XRP that will be the victim of this type of action.
The key issue is whether cryptocurrencies are being sold as an investment contract, or not.
Bitcoin certainly isn’t, and the SEC has already even come out publicly in favor of this idea.
On Ethereum some doubt is there, because of staking, but as of yet absolutely no such action has been taken.
On XRP, on the other hand, doubts remain, especially because of how it was put on the markets years ago.
To this day it is indeed hard to imagine it being sold as if it were an investment contract, but when the Ripple company initially put it on the market inviting people to buy it by promising returns there may have been the extremes to call it a kind of investment contract.
The future of XRP
It may be no coincidence at all that since the collapse due to the FTX bankruptcy, the price of XRP has not recovered.
By September 2022 the price was at current levels, but by October it was well above $0.5.
With the FTX bankruptcy, the price suddenly plunged to $0.331, and from there it has still not recovered.
In the same period, the price of Bitcoin has risen from $15,500 to over $17,000, while that of XRP has always been around $0.34. This might suggest that after the collapse of FTX, which caused a sharp increase in concerns from regulators, there are no conditions for a sharp rise in the short term.
The main obstacle seems to be precisely the possible increase in the rigidity of regulations governing crypto markets, from which XRP could suffer the most.