XRP surged double digits to $1.14 before settling at $1.10, breaking out of a dull market. Whale activity intensified, with transactions over $1 million rising 280% in a day. Holders of 10–100 million XRP purchased 72 million tokens in 24 hours. Over 240 million XRP left major exchanges between June and mid-August. Network activity hit a two-month high with nearly 50,000 active addresses. Open interest reached $2.7 billion, the highest since October 2025, with short volume exceeding long volume. Analyst Bird noted similarities to November 2024’s breakout pattern.
Most of July and August were highly dull trading periods for the entire cryptocurrency market, with little movement and missing volume. The market revived yesterday afternoon with major price rallies across all assets, and Ripple’s XRP exploded alongside its peers.
The cross-border token broke decisively away from the $1.00 danger zone, surging by double digits to a monthly peak at $1.14 before it retraced slightly to $1.10. Whale activity picked up on several fronts, as the number of transactions worth more than $1 million soared by 280% within a single day, reaching almost 40 compared with roughly 10 during each of the preceding two days.
Market participants holding between 10 million and 100 million XRP purchased roughly 72 million tokens in 24 hours. The token supply sitting on exchanges also moved in the right direction for months, as over 240 million XRP left Binance, Upbit, and Coinbase between June and mid-August, with combined reserves dropping from roughly 5.36 billion to 5.12 billion tokens.
Overall network activity rose lately, with the XRP Ledger recording almost 50,000 active addresses within 24 hours, the highest figure in over two months. XRP open interest had skyrocketed to $2.7 billion earlier this week, the highest since the October 2025 massacre, with 75% of these positions positioned long.
Notional exposure remained balanced because every derivatives contract has both a long and short side, but the actual trading flow leaned bearish. Around $375 million in 24-hour short volume was recorded compared with $304 million on the long side.
Popular analyst Bird weighed in on the OI, indicating that when it surged between 2022 and 2024, XRP ultimately got wrecked. However, it all changed in November 2024, as “that time was different. OI exploded… but instead of price rejecting and leverage being wiped out, XRP broke out with it. A completely new trend began.”
Bird added that XRP spent the past few months getting “absolutely destroyed,” as prices capitulated, leverage was flushed, and sentiment deteriorated. OI built up quietly again, and XRP responded with a massive green candle, though the analyst admitted that “one green candle doesn’t confirm anything” and that the comparison looks increasingly like November 2024 as long as XRP keeps moving higher while OI remains healthy.
