Massive XRP Transfer from Ripple Wallet to Bitstamp Raises Questions

In a recent development, cryptocurrency tracker Whale Alert has detected a substantial transfer of XRP from an anonymous wallet to the centralized crypto exchange Bitstamp. The sending wallet reportedly belongs to Ripple, a blockchain company based in San Francisco. As per the report of the analytic platform Whale Alert, Ripple has been consistently moving substantial quantities of XRP to Bitstamp over the past two months.

🚨 29,600,000 #XRP (14,525,944 USD) transferred from unknown wallet to #Bitstamp https://t.co/ikW1fz8ehr
— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) September 17, 2023

In this latest transaction, Ripple transferred a staggering 29,600,000 XRP, equivalent to $14,525,944, to Bitstamp. These transfers of XRP in lumps have raised questions about Ripple’s intentions and the possible implications for the XRP market.

Interestingly, this transfer follows another noteworthy transaction over the weekend when Ripple received a whopping 100,000,000 XRP from a wallet marked as “unknown” by Whale Alert. However, the Bithomp analytics platform revealed that the sender was SideShift, a Canada-based crypto exchange.

The motives behind this transfer remain unclear, although historical data has shown that exchanges sometimes move excess XRP received from Ripple back to the company. Ripple could be repurchasing XRP from the secondary market. However, the company has yet to make an official statement regarding these transactions.

Ripple has previously moved 100 million XRP tokens from the 1 billion XRP token unlock by Ripple on September 1st. However, later, 800 million XRP (nearly $400 million) were re-locked into two different escrows, accounting for 80% of the unlocked total. From that, 72 million tokens passed through five different accounts before being deposited in small batches to four different exchanges, indicating they were sold.

In addition to these transfers, Ripple has made headlines with its decision to rebrand its popular On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) product. A Ripple executive explained that the decision to rebrand ODL was driven by the belief that the name might be challenging for average users to understand immediately. As a result, the company’s website now refers to ODL as a “Ripple payments solution”.