Decade-Long Journey of XRP Whales: Small Wallets Reach Record High in Activity

XRP Ledger, the blockchain powering the digital currency XRP, has experienced a remarkable increase in the number of small XRP wallets, reaching a significant milestone in its ten-year history. Furthermore, recent activity from XRP whales has grabbed the attention of market observers, as hundreds of millions of XRP have been transferred to centralized cryptocurrency exchanges.

According to a recent report from on-chain data aggregator Santiment, the XRP Ledger now boasts an astounding 5.02 million wallets holding more than zero XRP coins. This surge represents the highest number of whale addresses ever recorded in the ten years that XRP has been publicly traded.

The exponential growth becomes evident when comparing the figures from just three years ago, when the total number of wallets holding more than zero XRP was a mere 1.5 million on January 31.

In a significant development earlier this week, Gemini, the cryptocurrency exchange founded by the Winklevoss twins, announced the addition of a perpetual XRP/GUSD contract. The announcement came after days of cryptic teasers on the exchange’s Twitter account, hinting at the introduction of an XRP-related product.

Perpetual contracts, a popular type of derivative, allow traders to speculate on the price of an underlying cryptocurrency without a set expiry date. In addition to XRP/GUSD, Gemini offers perpetual contracts for BTC/GUSD, ETH/GUSD, and PEPE/GUSD pairs.

In contrast, prominent Bitcoin advocate Max Keiser has made bearish predictions about the future of XRP, referring to it as “centralized garbage.” Keiser has predicted that XRP could drop to $0.01 and has expressed similar sentiments about other alternative coins like SOL.

These comments reflect the ongoing debates surrounding the long-term viability and decentralization of XRP within the broader cryptocurrency landscape.