XRP climbed to $0.66 on Wednesday, surging by 8% over the past 24 hours from $0.60, a level last seen in the third week of March.
The latest upward price action comes amidst important developments in the XRP ecosystem and renewed investor optimism in the market as the accumulation trend intensifies.
XRP Accumulation
There has been a significant surge in the number of wallets holding at least 10,000 XRP over the past five weeks. According to the latest data shared by Santiment, this figure has reached a six-month high of 279.4k addresses.
This sharp increase in high-value wallets signaled a growing accumulation trend among investors, potentially reflecting bullish sentiment toward XRP.
Notably, the correlation between these large holdings and XRP's market value has been strikingly consistent throughout 2024. As per the on-chain crypto analytic platform, such a trend suggests that as more high-profile investors accumulate XRP, the asset's market value tends to rise accordingly.
The SEC's filing on Tuesday also appears to have induced a shift in sentiment among XRP holders. The filing in question indicates plans to revise its Binance complaint, which could affect tokens such as SOL and MATIC. This revision might delay rulings on whether these tokens are unregistered securities.
As a result, XRP traders now believe the SEC might ease its stance against fintech firm Ripple as its lawsuit approaches resolution. Speculation about a potential settlement between the two parties spread widely before their closed-door meeting on July 25 but to no actual result.
1 Billion XRP Unlock
Another important development in the ecosystem is the scheduled release of 1 billion XRP tokens by Ripple in August. This practice is part of the company's strategy to maintain transparency in releasing its holdings, which began in 2017 when Ripple allocated 55 billion XRP tokens into multiple escrow accounts.
The upcoming unlock will release XRP tokens worth approximately $641 million based on current prices. Although increasing the token supply typically would lower the price, certain research argues that it might actually boost an ongoing bullish trend due to the increased liquidity.
Chris Burniske, partner at venture capital firm Placeholder and former crypto lead at Ark Invest, recently explained,
“Large unlocks of tokens are a complex event that interfaces with market psychology. Simply put, large unlocks can be bullish catalysts in bulls and bearish catalysts in bears. They unlock liquidity to continue the prevailing trend.”