XRP News: Whale Wallets Hit ATH, Why ‘Smart Money’ is Buying the Pullback

In XRP news today, on-chain data from Santiment confirms that XRP Ledger wallets holding at least 10,000 XRP have reached a new all-time high of 332,230 addresses, a figure that has been climbing steadily since June 2024 even as XRP trades at $1.46, roughly 56% below its all-time high.

The divergence between price weakness and accumulation depth is not coincidental noise; it is a structural signal that larger holders are treating the current range as an entry point, not an exit.

The open question the market now has to answer is whether this accumulation resolves upward the way comparable pre-rally positioning has historically, or whether macro headwinds extend the drawdown long enough to shake conviction.

XRP touched $1.50 on May 10, 2026, before pulling back to its current level. The price has recovered from $1.34 on April 29, placing it 8.15% above the key support level at $1.35. The cycle high of $3.36, set in June 2025, remains the reference ceiling; the cycle low of $1.11 set shortly after is the floor the accumulation thesis must hold above.

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XRP News: What the ATH Accumulation Data Actually Reveals

The headline figure, 332,230 addresses holding 10,000+ XRP, captures the breadth of accumulation, but the more analytically significant signal sits in a narrower cohort.

Addresses holding between 1 million and 10 million XRP have reached their highest count in the history of the ledger, with CryptoQuant data showing net inflows of 450 million XRP (approximately $650 million at current prices) from exchanges into this bracket over the past 30 days.

This is not retail accumulation dressed up in large numbers; it is the 1M–10M XRP cohort, the tier most closely associated with institutional-grade positioning and high-net-worth allocators, hitting a structural peak in wallet count.

The distinction matters. Mega-whale addresses holding 100 million XRP or more control an estimated 47.8 billion tokens, or roughly 52% of circulating supply, and their behavior reflects long-duration custody rather than active positioning signals.

The 1M–10M cohort, by contrast, represents the layer of capital that moves with conviction but still responds to price levels, and right now, that layer is growing, not shrinking. Separately, addresses holding over $1 million USD in XRP added 42 new wallets in Q1 2026 alone, bringing the total to 1,200 millionaire-tier addresses despite price stagnation below $2.00.

On-chain data also shows one notable disruption: between February 6 and 8, 2026, over 4,500 wallets in the 10,000+ XRP bracket disappeared during a broader crypto market selloff.

The wallet count subsequently recovered and moved above prior levels, a pattern consistent with temporary consolidation across exchange-held addresses rather than genuine holder exit. Santiment noted directly that the continued rise represents “an important long-term signal because it shows that larger holders have kept accumulating even during periods of volatility and uncertainty.”

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