Whale addresses on the XRP Ledger added roughly 380 million XRP over the week of Aug. 18, even as the price barely moved. Separately, XRP jumped 22% in 24 hours toward $1.26, triggering forced short-buying that could add further demand if the price keeps climbing toward $1.40 to $1.50 resistance.
Addresses holding between 1 million and 10 million XRP added about 380 million tokens over the week of Aug. 18, lifting whale holdings from roughly 16.05 billion to 16.36 billion. Transactions exceeding $1 million surged 280% in a single 24-hour window during that week, with more than 38 large transfers recorded on the XRP Ledger.
Price stayed flat while whales bought
Despite the buying, the price did almost nothing, hovering near $1 before rising to $1.23 during the broader market rally on Aug. 20. Whale transfers to Binance fell to their lowest level since 2021, with the three-month average dropping to about $61 million, suggesting large holders are not moving tokens toward exchanges to sell.
A separate short squeeze pushes the price higher
In a separate development, XRP jumped 22% in 24 hours to trade near $1.26, clearing a breakout level CryptoSlate had flagged the previous month. Short liquidations on Hyperliquid could reach roughly $2.2 million if XRP hits $1.38, about 9.5% above spot at the time. A forced short liquidation makes a trader buy the asset back to close the position, adding demand regardless of intent.
Hyperliquid's XRP open interest stood at around $116.4 million, with total short-liquidation exposure across all price levels at $49.5 million. Traders have marked $1.40 to $1.50 as the larger resistance band that would need to break for the move to become more than a short squeeze. A pullback to $1.19 would expose about $525,000 in long liquidations, and a drop to $1.13 would push that figure toward $2.1 million.
Garlinghouse points to a record year
The buying coincided with Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse's Aug. 18 appearance at the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium, where he said Ripple is on the verge of doubling its revenue in 2026, crediting the acquisitions of Hidden Road and GTreasury. According to CoinGape: "we are more neutral on the topic than maybe we used to be", Garlinghouse said of a possible IPO.
XRP ETF inflows reached $13.24 million on Aug. 20, the largest single-day figure since June 29. Whether the rally holds now depends on XRP clearing $1.40 to $1.50 before dormant supply or fading short-covering demand catches up with it.
Sources: crypto.news, CryptoSlate, CoinGape
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