Large XRP Whales Have Amassed 4B+ XRP Since the Ongoing Downtrend Began

Large XRP whales have accumulated more than 4 billion XRP tokens since the ongoing downtrend began in July 2025.

While the current downward price action has dampened market sentiment, leading to panic among retail investors, market data suggests that large whales have instead taken advantage of the lower prices to load up on their bags.

Specifically, XRP whales holding between 10 million and 100 million XRP have accumulated over 4 billion tokens since XRP began correcting from the July 2025 peak of $3.6. These wallets have pushed their cumulative holdings beyond the 12 billion XRP mark for the first time in history.

XRP Whales Accumulating

This is according to data provided by Santiment, a leading crypto analytics resource. Notably, XRP whales holding between 10 million and 100 million tokens had a cumulative balance of 8 billion XRP at the start of July 2025, days before the $3.6 peak.

When XRP claimed the all-time high on July 18, 2025, and immediately corrected, this balance started dropping, reaching a low of 7.5 billion XRP on Aug. 16, 2025, as whales reacted to the sudden price collapse with a wave of profit-taking trades.

Interestingly, while XRP’s price continued to decline from August 2025, these whales flipped from distribution to accumulation, aggressively adding to their holdings even as prices collapsed.

They hit a cumulative balance of 11.18 billion by December 2025, and then the accumulation trend cooled. After three months, these XRP whales resumed the campaign in March 2026, pushing their balance to the current figure of 12.13 billion.

This figure represents an increase of 4.63 billion XRP in these whales’ balance since the downtrend began. Today, these tokens are currently worth $4.9 billion. However, at the $3.6 peak, they would have a value of over $16.6 billion. 

XRP Downtrend Triggers Retail Panic

For context, XRP has continued to trend lower since correcting from the all-time high of $3.6 last July. After reaching $3.6, bears took charge of the market, leading to consistent lower highs that have continued to play out to this day.

Currently trading for $1.06, XRP has now collapsed more than 70% from the $3.6 peak, down nearly 42% this year alone. While the broader market downturn started after the Oct. 10, 2025 crash, XRP’s bearish situation emerged three months earlier and has persisted till now.

Amid the downtrend, retail investors have been thrown into a panic. According to a Santiment report in May, the positive-to-negative sentiment ratio for XRP slumped to 1.1, confirming a bearish bias. The Crypto Basic also revealed earlier this month that sentiment had flipped extremely bearish.

Notably, the bearish price action has led to a drop in balances held by smaller whales and sharks (100,000 to 1 million XRP), as these wallets have distributed 1.3 billion XRP since August 2025. However, large whales continue to add to their balance.