XRP Sees Rise in Transactions Over $100,000: What Does This Mean for Ripple’s Price?

Rising whale activity is accompanied by falling currency balances, indicating movement rather than distribution by large holders.

XRP’s on-chain activity took a sudden turn early this week as large value transfers on the XRP Ledger jumped to a three-month high, according to new data from Santiment.

The rise in transactions above $100,000 indicates growing involvement from large holders at a time when the Ripple token price is retreating, paving the way for broader price moves in the coming days.

Whale activity is increasing while currency balances continue to decline

Santiment said on January 8 that whale-sized XRP transfers are happening climbed from 2,170 on Monday to 2,802 the next day, the highest daily number since October. The analytics firm warned that price movements are likely to be more erratic than normal when big investors become so active.

This behavior is striking because it contrasts with what happens at stock exchanges. Separate data shared by CryptoQuant contributor CryptoOnchain showed XRP reserves on Binance traps to around 2.6 billion tokens, the lowest level since January 2024. Since late 2025, exchange balances have fallen from around 3.25 billion XRP, a shift often linked to holders self-managing coins rather than preparing to sell.

Meanwhile, Arab Chain has added another layer to the picture, with the platform’s analysts point out that whale flows to Binance have been trending lower since mid-December 2025, after peaking above 70% of total inflows in November and early December. Whales now make up around 60% of XRP deposits on the exchange, while retail participation has remained fairly stable. Historically, fewer whale deposits indicate less immediate sales interest from major players, according to analysts.

The data comes at a time when XRP is becoming a major talking point in broader markets. On January 6, CNBC’s Power Lunch called it the “hottest crypto trade” of 2026, highlighting strong interest from investors looking for bigger percentage moves than Bitcoin (BTC) or Ethereum (ETH) after strong ETF inflows late last year.

Price action is cooling off, but larger trend is still intact

On the markets, XRP was trading around $2.13 at the time of writing, after dropping 6% in the past 24 hours, according to CoinGecko data. The token briefly touched the top of its weekly range around $2.40 earlier this week before sellers pushed it lower, in line with a softer session in the broader crypto market.

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Zooming out, XRP is still up about 16% over the past seven days and almost 14% over the past two weeks. Monthly gains are just above 3%, while the annual figure remains slightly negative.

Analysts are eyeing key support near $2.27, with continued holding above that level seen as crucial to maintaining bullish momentum. Some chartists are pointing to a bullish setup of the XRP/BTC pairing not seen since 2018, indicating a possible shift in relative strength. For now, rising whale transfers combined with falling exchange rates indicate positioning rather than panic, even though near-term price swings remain likely.