It is not every day that 200 million XRP - that is about $457.39 million - disappears from a Ripple wallet and mysteriously reappears somewhere. But that is exactly what happened today, when Whale Alert spotted it and sent the crypto community into a whirlwind of speculation, questions and theories.
The blockchain has some clues. The recipient wallet, "rP4X2hT," is not new. It was first active on Oct. 2 last year, with an initial deposit of 70 million XRP.
Gamza KhanzadaevNow, after today's huge transfer, it is sitting on nearly 292.376 million XRP. Ripple's escrow accounts, on the other hand, are sitting on about 37.137 billion XRP, untouched for the time being.
What's going on?
Well, there are a few possibilities, each with its own set of implications.
For example, it is possible that this wallet is still under Ripple's control and is just moving funds around internally. In that case, it would not be a big deal, just a regular shuffling of funds rather than a major move. But what if it it not?
Yuri MolchanIf this is an exchange's hot wallet, that could change things entirely, as large transfers to exchanges tend to make traders nervous and are often seen as a prelude to increased selling pressure.
And yet, despite the size of this transaction, the price of XRP did not drop. In fact, it went up. In the last few hours, it has risen more than 3.56% to $2.32. If this was supposed to be a bearish sign, the market did not get the memo, or maybe it is just too early to tell.
Dan Burgin
Vladislav Sopov