XRP has benefited greatly from the ongoing cryptocurrency bull run, although the token failed to cross the $4 threshold or reclaim its all-time high (ATH) of $3.40.
Although upward momentum slowed in the latter half of December, since the start of 2025, XRP has seen a renewed surge. On a year-to-date (YTD) basis, the digital asset’s price has increased by 55.41%, having marked a 35.31% gain on the weekly chart.
The most recent leg of the surge, which began on January 13, was driven by two factors — better-than-expected inflation numbers from the December Consumer Price Index (CPI) report, and an appeal brief in the longstanding case against Ripple Labs made by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which was largely seen as ineffectual.
Picks for you
In yet another bullish turn of events, XRP seems to have received a vote of confidence from whales — as revealed by a renowned cryptocurrency researcher, addresses that hold more than 1,000,000 tokens seem to have gone on a buying spree over the last 48 hours.
100 million XRP has been bought by whales over the past two days
Historically, accumulation by whales has preceded cryptocurrency bull runs. Whales are typically either experienced investors or institutions — as such, they’re in a position to conduct superior analysis. On top of that, these large accounts tend to practice a buy-and-hold approach — in other words, they bring about a long-term supply constraint which tends to bring prices upward.
Over the last two days, such addresses have accumulated 100 million XRP, per renowned on-chain researcher Ali Martinez, who shared his findings in a January 20 post on social media platform X.
Beyond the dynamics of supply and demand, whale accumulation also serves as a strong indicator of market sentiment. In this particular instance, it could signal that whales are confident that the SEC’s lawsuit will be thrown out by the Trump administration — in a move that would most likely serve as a significant bullish catalyst.
Technical analysts remain bullish and keep setting high XRP price targets
Martinez also noted that XRP had broken out of a bullish flag pattern in a January 19 post on X. Per his analysis, XRP could rally to $4 — some 20.12% higher than the token’s current price, in short order.
Martinez is even more bullish in the long run — having also pointed to a symmetrical triangle pattern spotted on XRP’s monthly chart in a January 16 X post, which suggests that the asset could rally to $15, a mark equating to a 350.45% upside from current prices.
In addition, Gert van Lagen noted a double-bottom formation on the long-term XRP price chart — per the analyst, if the same scenario that played out in the last market cycle repeats again, the price of XRP could soar to levels close to $100.
Featured image via Shutterstock
