XRP Whales Return As Retail Stays On Sidelines

$XRP edged higher on July 2, rising around 1.5% to $1.05 in the 24-hour session, as on-chain data pointed to a growing divergence between large holders and everyday traders. The move came alongside a sharp intraday volume spike and the strongest new wallet growth the network has recorded in roughly three months.

Whale Activity Pulls Away From Retail

The clearest signal came from CryptoQuant's Whale vs. Retail Spread, a metric that tracks the difference between XRP outflows driven by transfers above 100,000 tokens and those at or below that threshold. The all-CEX reading rose from 26.0% on May 6 to 50.9% on June 29, an increase of nearly 25 percentage points. A higher reading indicates that large holders account for a greater share of exchange withdrawals compared with retail participants.

Binance's reading fell from 62.0% on June 11 to 44.6% by June 29, placing it 6.3 percentage points below the broader centralized exchange average. The divergence suggests large-holder activity is becoming more distributed across trading platforms, though the metric cannot determine whether those transfers reflect selling, accumulation, custody movements, or internal wallet restructuring.

Separately, large XRP transfers above 1 million tokens from Coinbase increased from about 10% to 25.7% of total outflows between mid-June and July 1, based on CryptoQuant data. Large wallet activity continues to dominate the marginal flow increase, even as retail participation remains relatively flat.

Network Growth Offers a Counterpoint to Price Weakness

Santiment data shows that new wallet creations on the XRP Ledger recently spiked, with 4,941 new addresses added to the network in a single day, the highest level of adoption and user traction in 14 weeks. The number of daily active addresses on the XRP Ledger also increased from roughly 23,000 to almost 39,500 by late June, a 72% increase within two weeks.

The on-chain improvement arrives against a difficult price backdrop. $XRP started June around $1.30, then slid almost the whole month, ending it around $1.04, its weakest level since late 2024. XRP ETF inflows have run positive for eight straight weeks, with the week of June 26 adding roughly $23 million and cumulative net inflows reaching about $1.47 billion. Still, the token remains technically fragile, trading below key moving average resistance levels that analysts say must be reclaimed before any sustained recovery can be confirmed.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice.

Sources:
The Crypto Basic: XRP Whales Are Moving Coins Off Exchanges Faster Than Retail Holders
Coin Edition: XRP Whale-Retail Spread Hits 50.9% as Binance Gap Falls
The Crypto Basic: XRP Aims Higher as New Wallet Creation Spikes to 14-Week High