Unknown Whales Move 79,400,000 XRP to Binance and Bitso, But There’s a Catch

Leading crypto tracking platform Whale Alert calls attention to the movement of over 79 million XRP to two top exchanges Binance and Bitso.

60 Million XRP Moves to Binance

Data from Whale Alert shows that the most recent transaction occurred earlier today, featuring the transfer of 60 million XRP to Binance. According to Whale Alert, the funds were deposited to Binance today at 02:51 (UTC). At the time, the funds were worth $34.19 million, indicating that XRP was priced at $0.5699.

For context, investors usually move funds to exchanges like Binance whenever they intend to sell or convert them to other assets. Hence, the transaction sent shockwaves into the XRP community, as investors expected the move to have a bearish impact on the asset’s price. At press time, XRP trades at $0.5746, marking a daily decline of 1.42%.

Unmasking Sender’s Identity

Although Whale Alert labeled the sender as “unknown,” XRP blockchain explorer Bithomp data suggests that the transaction is part of an in-house transfer between two Binance-affiliated wallets.

According to Bithomp, Binance activated the sending wallet on December 21, 2023. Following its activation, the wallet has moved huge amounts of XRP to other Binance-affiliated wallets, including a transfer of 33 million XRP on August 21.

At the time of writing, the sending wallet currently has a balance of 204.27 million XRP, worth $117.37 million.

Ripple Moves 19.4 Million

Prior to the movement of 60 million XRP to Binance, Whale Alert had indexed the transfer of 19.4 million XRP ($11.04 million) to the Bitso exchange. According to Whale Alert, the transaction occurred yesterday at 22:52 (UTC).

Despite Whale Alert labeling the sender as unknown, Bithomp data confirms that the wallet was activated with 20 XRP by San Francisco crypto payments company Ripple on January 18, 2023.

The wallet currently has a balance of 2,209 XRP in the hours leading up to press time. Notably, Bitso is one of Ripple’s major ODL (now Ripple Payments) partners. As reported last year, Bitso claimed it facilitated $3.3 billion in remittances between the United States and Mexico in 2022 using Ripple’s ODL solution.

Meanwhile, the abovementioned XRP-related transactions come days after whales scooped nearly 150 million XRP in 48 hours. The Crypto Basic reported that these investors first scooped over 50 million XRP on August 27 and another 97.2 million XRP the following day.

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