As the cryptocurrency market, led by Bitcoin (BTC), XRP, and Cardano (ADA) rebounded over the past 2 days through October 21, 2026, crypto trading expert Ali Martinez signaled potential short-term manipulation for their prices by large players.
Martinez noted that the Bitcoin price rebound over the last 2 days has coincided with a sharp spike in on-chain activity, according to his X on Wednesday. Specifically, as BTC climbed from around $81,200 to a high of $83,407 on Tuesday, its exchange inflows surged from roughly 7,682 to 25,124 coins.

Similarly, the crypto analyst pointed out that XRP’s price jump from its major support level around $1.25 on Tuesday, overlapped with a surge in transaction volume on the XRP Ledger (XRPL), from roughly 215.87 million over the weekend to 49.17 billion on Monday.

Meanwhile, Martinez showed that Cardano’s whale transactions, worth more than $1 million, rallied from roughly 24 to 51. At the same time, ADA price rebounded over 5% from its support level near $0.21.

“While the market consolidates, these moves suggest large players may be influencing short-term price action, and some of that activity is visible on-chain,” Martinez noted.
Price performance for Bitcoin, XRP and Cardano on October 21
Over the last week, Bitcoin price had added 3.55%, trading at $84,557 at press time. Bitcoin’s 24-hour trading volume spiked 6.8% to $27.56 billion, according to data Finbold fetched from CoinMarketCap.

Amid renewed demand for XRP’s spot and derivatives, the token’s price had increased nearly 4% to $1.37 at the time of reporting.

As on-chain data revealed Cardano whale transactions on the rise, ADA price signaled bullish sentiment. The altcoin’s 24-hour trading volume has risen by roughly 10% to $280 million.

Consequently, Martinez believes that renewed demand for Cardano, Bitcoin, and XRP has influenced their growth over the past two days.
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