As things were starting to calm down in the courtroom, Coinbase's ledgers showed one of the biggest XRP moves in recent months — 16,684,298 tokens, worth $55.46 million, coming from an address that blockchain trackers could not immediately identify.
The alert was first spotted in the early hours of Aug. 8, less than 24 hours after Ripple and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission finally settled their long-running legal dispute.
The case ended with both sides filing to dismiss their respective appeals in the Second Circuit, which meant that Judge Analisa Torres' July 2023 ruling was locked in. That decision made it clear that XRP's sales to institutional buyers were deemed unregistered securities offerings, while its trading on exchanges and on retail markets was not.
There will not be any further appeals, so the ruling stands and each party will cover its own legal costs.
People who watch what happens on the blockchain soon connected the $55 million transfer to an internal move at Coinbase, moving funds from Cold Wallet 396 to a more active Coinbase holding address. The exchange still holds 29 other cold wallets, each with roughly 16.5 million XRP, so it looks like this was more about repositioning liquidity than a sudden whale deciding to offload.
XRP price reaction
It is interesting to note that these kinds of moves to operational wallets often happen just before trading activity picks up, especially when they happen at the same time as a major news event.
For the XRP price, the timing could not be better. The token had already climbed to $3.38 — its highest level since late July — in the hours after the settlement papers were filed, shaking off a week of sideways action.
Now, with the U.S. finally clearing its regulatory cloud and $55 million worth of liquidity having just been released, the market will be watching to see if this post-case chapter begins with a rally or profit-taking.
Dan Burgin
Vladislav Sopov
U.Today Editorial Team