The institutional demand for XRP, the native token of the XRP Ledger (XRPL), declined in May after a notable accumulation in April 2026.
The XRP institutional accumulation model on Binance – a tool tracking net buying activity from large wallets on the exchange – slipped back below zero in May, according to on-chain data from CryptoQuant analyzed by Finbold on May 20. The indicator dropped to approximately -0.0059 at the time of reporting, signaling that whale demand for the token has softened.
As a result, April’s brief breakout, which marked the first positive readings in six months, has ended. However, the slowdown in its institutional accumulation in May remains close to zero, suggesting investors may be exercising caution after a notable increase in demand since early February 2026.
“Despite this decline, the index remains close to neutral territory, indicating that the market has not yet entered a phase of strong distribution or widespread institutional exit,” Arab Chain noted on CryptoQuant.
Furthemore, large XRP holders have already withdrawn nearly 403 million XRP, valued at more than $548 million, from the Binance exchange between May 1 and 15, based on recent insights from CryptoQuant.
XRP price outlook amid institutional distributions
Amid the recent decline in institutional demand for XRP, the token’s price has signaled bearish sentiment. Despite strong institutional demand in April, the token’s price has failed to rally beyond a crucial supply level around $1.50 over the past few weeks.
As such, the token has dropped by more than 3% in the past 30 days, trading at roughly $1.36 at the time of reporting. This altcoin’s market cap shrank by $475 million over the past 24 hours to hover about $84.3 billion on Wednesday.
Consequently, if the large XRP holders continue to distribute in the near future, further sell-off could be inevitable and vice versa.
