In the midst of a market-wide pullback, XRP has demonstrated an unexpected degree of resilience, having posted smaller losses than many other leading digital assets.
Despite worries that a crash below the crucial $2 support level could lead the price of the token to plummet, over the last 24 hours, XRP has only seen modest changes in price, amounting to a 0.03% loss. It seems that the bulls are having a relatively easy time keeping XRP above $2.30.
At press time, the token was trading at $2.33, having marked a 10.22% gain since the start of the year. For the sake of comparison, Bitcoin (BTC) has marked a 12.27% loss in the same timeframe — while the S&P 500 benchmark index has shed 3.73% in value.
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That might sound promising at first glance — but the price of XRP has decreased by 15.45% compared to 30 days ago. In fact, current prices are still 20.74% lower than XRP’s recent $2.94 high on March 3.
Sure, it still qualifies as what we referred to it as — an unexpected degree of resilience, but it is still far from a strong uptrend. There are a couple of promising signs present, however.
As noted by Finbold, the number of XRP addresses has surged past 7 million — indicating a steady, growing rate of adoption. In tandem with this, there is widespread institutional interest in XRP exchange-traded funds (ETFs), as showcased by Franklin Templeton’s recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Now, a renowned technical analyst has highlighted that whales — accounts holding more than 100,000,000 XRP, have gone on a buying spree.
XRP whales gave the asset a vote of confidence — is time to follow suit?
Noted cryptocurrency analyst Ali Martinez shared his findings in a March 15 X post. Per Martinez, between March 13 and March 15, XRP whales purchased more than 150 million tokens.
In addition, Martinez outlined a case for a surge to prices as high as $15, provided that the level of resistance at $2.5 is breached.
More importantly, this latest development is particularly important in view of Ripple’s escrow schedule. Recently, some 200 million XRP was moved from this month’s unlock — and while such an injection could have put downward pressure on prices, whales, who generally adopt a long-term buy-and-hold approach, have the ability to absorb this additional supply without depressing prices.
While many retail traders look to large accounts for cues, it’s important to note that bullishness (or bearishness) on the side of whales isn’t always validated by price action going forward. To use a simple example — in mid-February, XRP whales loaded up on 60 million tokens. At the time, the asset was trading at a price of $2.63 — and it crashed to just $2.04 in a little over ten days.
Still, a positive development is a positive development — and this seal of approval from XRP whales will likely serve to diminish bearish impulses until a clearer bullish catalyst emerges. That could come sooner rather than later — as the longstanding lawsuit between the SEC and Ripple Labs is expected to conclude soon.
Featured image via Shutterstock
