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A single $XRP transaction worth over half a billion dollars failed to move the market, raising concerns among community pundits.
Notably, these concerns emerged as $XRP has failed to mirror the recent market momentum that has pushed Bitcoin ($BTC) to a price discovery phase. Specifically, $BTC has now changed hands above $111,000 for the first time in history. The asset recently breached its previous all-time high at $109,000.
Despite Bitcoin’s recent milestone, $XRP trades at the lower end of the $2 price region, trading for $2.4 with a meager 0.6% drop this week. Amid this price stagnation, market participants expect intense buying pressure to contribute to an uptick.
Pundits Point to Market Manipulation Following $ 500 M+ $XRP Move
However, some pundits believe this has not been the case following a recent whale transaction that they suggest should have at least nudged the price northward. For context, a whale withdrew 236.98 million $XRP worth $567 million from Kraken in a single transaction yesterday.
Spotlighting the transaction, “Stellar Expert,” an $XRP and XLM community pundit, called attention to the transaction but pointed out that despite the magnitude of the move, $XRP’s price did not even bulge.
He noted that while the buying pressure from the transaction ought to at least contribute to a price increase, $XRP’s charts saw no pump and wicks, with zero excitement within the market.
Stellar Expert asked whether this was a market or a simulation, a question he believes even the most loyal $XRP proponents would ask at this point. According to him, if a market fails to react positively to the inflow of over half a billion dollars, then something is wrong.
Notably, Digital G, another pseudonymous community pundit and former City of London fund manager, also made similar comments.
When a whale buys more than a quarter of a billion $XRP a couple of hours ago, without so much as a flicker in unit price of $XRP, surely even the most trusting will suspect that this whole $XRP market has a few fundamental issues. pic.twitter.com/KPm2W9AFgu
— DigitalG (@DigitalG15) May 21, 2025
According to him, when a large transaction like this fails to influence even a slight price push, market participants would suspect the market has some issues. When asked if he believes this could translate to market manipulation, Digital G answered affirmatively.
Here’s What’s Happening
However, a look at the transaction indicates that the pundits might be misinterpreting its nature. Notably, data from the $XRP Ledger shows that the transaction is in fact a payment that likely involved a withdrawal from Kraken, and not necessarily a buy.
Notably, these transactions differ from actual purchases, as they may simply involve the transfer of existing $XRP holdings from an exchange to a non-custodial wallet. While such movements are generally bullish, indicating a potential intention to hold the assets long-term, they do not necessarily have any impact on exchange order books.
The only instance where these withdrawals have a direct impact on order books, essentially affecting price, is when the whale recently purchased the $XRP tokens before withdrawing them out. Interestingly, Ripple CTO David Schwartz confirmed this in a post, but suggested that it is likely the whale recently bought the tokens.
It's almost certainly a withdrawal of $XRP from an exchange. That doesn't prove it was recently purchased, but that's at least somewhat likely.
— David 'JoelKatz' Schwartz (@JoelKatz) May 21, 2025
Meanwhile, disclosures from order book expert Dom show $XRP is indeed facing some troubles on that front. Specifically, Dom confirmed that market participants had sold a net volume of 240 million $XRP in the past seven days, with most of the selling pressure coming from Coinbase and Upbit.