XRP Price Dips, But Whales Are Buying: What’s the Smart Money Doing?

• Despite XRP crashing 20% in the past two months, whales have bought the dip. 
• Whales increased their holdings by 46.4 billion XRP ($113.2 billion) in two months.
• XRP OI is up 17.96% in the past day but down 50% from its January peak of $7.87 billion.

XRP had seen a notable downturn, with its price dropping by 20% over the past couple of months, landing at $2.44 at the time of this report. This price slump also caused XRP to slip from its position as the third-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. 

However, large investors have continued accumulating more coins. Data from Santiment shows that wallets holding at least one million XRP have increased their holdings by 6.5%, now possessing 46.4 billion XRP—equivalent to $113.2 billion.

It is clear that whales are confident in XRP’s long-term potential. Additionally, network activity has surged significantly, with March witnessing a sixfold increase in unique wallet interactions compared to previous months. 

SEC Drops Appeal: A Major Win for Ripple Labs

Further fueling bullish sentiment around XRP is the decision by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to drop its appeal against Ripple Labs. This legal victory removes a massive regulatory hurdle, potentially paving the way for broader institutional adoption of XRP. 

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has also hinted at XRP to play a role in the US strategic digital asset reserve which further turned many analysts bullish on the XRP token. 

Crypto analyst Dark Defender highlighted a bullish path for XRP with a $5 price tag, a 2x increase from current levels.

Related: XRP Price Alert: Support Test, Bearish Signals, Bullish Hopes

Analyzing XRP Open Interest and Price Action

XRP’s Open Interest (OI), which represents the total number of outstanding derivative contracts, has seen a sharp decline, dropping by over $3 billion in the last three months.

According to Coinglass data, XRP’s Open Interest surged to $7.87 billion around January 18, with leading exchanges such as Binance, Bybit, and Bitget contributing to the increase. 

However, since that peak, the OI has steadily decreased. By early February, it had fallen to $5.94 billion, marking a 24% drop. After a brief period of recovery, Open Interest continued its downward trend, reaching $3.01 billion by the end of February.

Currently, XRP’s Open Interest stands at approximately $3.77 billion, reflecting a decline of over 50% from its January peak but a 17.96% increase in the past 24 hours. Although this is a slight increase from its lowest point, the cryptocurrency has still lost approximately $4.62 billion in Open Interest over the past three months. 

Related: XRP Price on March 20th: Can it Break Through $2.33 Resistance After Recovering from $2.23 Low?

Meanwhile, analysis of the Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) indicator shows that the MACD line (blue) remains above the signal line (orange) following a recent bullish divergence. 

If XRP can successfully hold above the $2.50 resistance level, Fibonacci retracement levels suggest the next potential targets could be around $2.75 and $3.00, with longer-term bullish targets pointing towards $5.8 and $6.5.