Key Highlights
- XRP surged nearly 7%, rising from $1.29 to around $1.38, with trading volume reaching $3.33 billion.
- Whale transfers hit a six-month high, with about 1.6 billion XRP moved to Binance in 30 days.
- XRP faces key price levels, with $1.65 as a key level to reclaim, while $1.10 and $0.87 remain important downside levels.
XRP jumped nearly 7% over the past 24 hours, moving from an intraday low of about $1.29 to around $1.38 as trading activity picked up across the market.
According to data from CoinGecko (on September 18 at 4:19 pm UTC), the surge pushed XRP’s market cap to about $87.96 billion, while large holders also moved more XRP to Binance. The data shows that XRP’s trading volume reached about $3.33 billion within the last 24 hours.
The increase also spread to the futures market, where trading volume increased by 3.95% to about $4.88 billion, according to CoinGlass (on September 18 at 4:19 pm UTC). XRP’s futures open interest also increased by 7.64% to around $2.97 billion as at 4:19 pm UTC.
Open interest shows the value of futures contracts that are still active in the market. At the same time, options volume jumped about 24% to $6.41 million, while options open interest fell 6.50% to around $94.56 million.
XRP whales move more tokens
While XRP’s price moved higher, activity among large holders also drew attention.
In a report published on CryptoQuant on Friday, contributor Arab Chain said that about 1.6 billion XRP was moved from large wallets to Binance over the past 30 days. The amount was the highest recorded since March.
The increase is notable because whale transfers had been falling for several months. Transfers reached low levels in May, June, and July before starting to rise again in August. The pace of the increase has picked up in recent weeks.
Why Binance inflows matter
Moving XRP to Binance means large amounts of the token are entering an exchange where they can be traded more easily. This can increase the amount of XRP available in the market in the short term. However, the transfers alone do not show that whales are preparing to sell.
Arab Chain noted that large holders can send XRP to exchanges for different reasons. These include trading, managing liquidity, or moving funds as they change their portfolios. The whale transfers therefore need to be viewed alongside other data, such as exchange inflows, trading volume, price movement and exchange reserves.
“If whale deposits stay high while exchange inflows and trading volume also increase, it could mean large holders are preparing to sell more XRP,” Arab Chain said. The contributor also noted that rising deposits without stronger selling pressure could instead point to trading or the movement of funds.
Large XRP wallets gain attention
There has also been evidence of increased activity among large XRP holders.
In an X post on September 16, Santiment reported that 85 new wallets holding at least 1 million XRP appeared two days before XRP gained 67% between August 17 and August 21.
Activity on the XRP Ledger has also continued, with Santiment pointing to Ripple’s support for an RLUSD credit fund serving fintech and payment companies.
Projects including ZILO and Licuido are also involved in tokenization, asset transfers and other financial services on the network.
XRP faces key price levels
Some market levels remain important for XRP.
Crypto analyst Casi said XRP had fallen below the 0.5 Fibonacci level, weakening an earlier outlook for a move toward $1.78.
“The major level I’m watching is the macro .786 around ~$1.10. This level has multiple degrees of alignment, lines up as a potential C-wave target, so another test there makes a lot of sense,” the analyst wrote.
The analyst identified $1.65 as a key level for XRP to reclaim, while $1.10 remains important support. A deeper fall could bring $0.87 into focus.
The latest move also comes after the US Senate rejected a motion to advance the CLARITY Act by a 50-49 vote, below the 60 votes needed.
Separately, analyst CryptoBull previously predicted that XRP could reach $27 by the end of October. With XRP near $1.32 when the forecast was discussed, that target would require a rise of more than 20 times from the current level.
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