XRP Early Buyers Accelerate Profit-Taking as Regulatory Wins Bolster XRP Ecosystem

XRP XRP has staged one of the strongest rallies among crypto majors this cycle, but early retail holders are heading for the exit under the surface.

Now trading above $2 — more than thrice its pre-rally base from October 2024 — XRP has become one of the best-performing large-cap tokens over the past 8 months. Investors who bought below 60 cents are sitting on gains upward of 300%, prompting a sharp pickup in profit-taking.

According to on-chain data from Glassnode, the 7-day simple moving average (SMA) of realized profits from XRP wallets hit $68.8 million earlier this month, the highest in over a year. That’s a clear sign of distribution pressure, with early accumulators cashing out into strength as the token tests key resistance levels just below its 2021 peak.

That profit-taking pressure may help explain XRP’s failure to break above $2.20 in recent sessions, despite multiple bullish headlines and technical tailwinds.

Read more: XRP Drops 5% as High-Volume Selling Pressure Dominates Market

While the broader setup remains positive, supported by regulatory clarity in the U.S. and Ripple’s growing push into tokenized asset infrastructure, the near-term price action reflects a supply overhang from long-term holders.

A recent CryptoQuant analysis showed that the 1-year cumulative buy/sell quote volume difference for altcoins (excluding BTC and ETH) — a proxy for net investor flows — currently stands at negative $36 billion. That’s a sharp reversal from December 2024, when the metric briefly flipped positive, marking a local top for altcoins.

(CryptoQuant)

Since then, it’s been a one-way bleed, with “altcoin investors MIA,” CryptoQuant independent analyst Burak Kesmeci said in a Thursday post.

Despite pockets of strength in XRP, SOL, and a few narrative tokens tied to real-world assets (RWAs), the broader altcoin ecosystem remains stuck in a bear market, he noted.

Unless risk appetite returns or capital flows back into Layer 1s, DeFi, and gaming, hopes of an “altseason” may continue to fade into the summer.

Read more: XRP Hits 12-Year Milestone With Over 2,700 Whales, Holding Over 1M XRP, Onchain Data Show

Bitcoin Whales Seem to Be Calling a Top as BTC Price Consolidates

Bitcoin BTC is currently consolidating between $107,000 and $109,000, remaining just a few percentage points shy of its all-time high. While this tight range may appear stable on the surface, on-chain data suggests a shift in sentiment among some of the market's most influential participants, the large holders known as whales.

Glassnode’s Accumulation Trend Score, a measure of accumulation behavior across various wallet-size cohorts, offers deeper insight into this evolving market dynamic.

The metric evaluates the strength of purchasing by combining the size of wallet entities with the volume of bitcoin acquired over the past 15 days. For the largest holders, the value has dropped to 0.4. A reading closer to 1 indicates strong buying, whereas a level near 0 points to sales. Crucially, wallets associated with exchanges and miners are excluded from this analysis to provide a clearer picture of investor behavior.

What stands out is that entities holding 10,000 BTC or more typically classified as whales were the first to begin accumulating at the market’s April lows at around $75,000. Now, they are starting to reduce their holdings while the other wallet cohorts remain in accumulation mode. This pivot suggests a strategic shift, potentially driven by a desire to lock in profits near historic highs or a more cautious outlook on short-term price direction.

Trend Accumulation Score by Cohort (Glassnode)

Supporting evidence for this shift in behavior comes from exchange-flow data that shows whale wallets had been steadily withdrawing bitcoin over the past month, a bullish signal that implies they were not looking to sell their holdings in the short term.

This trend now appears to be reversing. In two of the past three days, whales have deposited BTC back onto exchanges, a pattern commonly associated with imminent selling activity.

Whales: Deposits vs Withdrawals (Glassnode)

This nuanced behavior raises the critical question: Are whales anticipating a local top?

Ether Whale Dumps $22M of ETH After 9 Years

Ether (ETH) fell to a two-year low of $1,412 this week and the volatility appears to have been too much for one long-time holder, who sold of the majority of their stash acquired at around $8 in 2016.

On-chain data shows that the wallet in question swapped 14,015 ETH for $22 million USDC over a 15-hour period on decentralized exchange Uniswap.

The investor also sold 6,630 ETH in May 2022 and 4,035 ETH in June 2023 — each time during a major market dip.

This time was no different with ETH having just tumbled from a cycle high of $4,000 in December. They still hold 521 ETH valued at $830,000.

ETH has rebounded in line with the wider market on Thursday, currently trading at $1,598 having risen by 8.2% in the past 24 hours. Trading volume has also increased by 25% to $33 billion as optimism creeps into the market following U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to pause tariffs for 90 days.

Hyperliquid Loses $4M After Whale’s Over $200M Ether Trade Unwinds

The liquidation of an over $200 million long trade on ether (ETH) lead to a $4 million loss for Hyperliquid, where the “whale” placed the bet.

The liquidation saw wallet ‘0xf3f4’ opening a highly leveraged 50x long ETH position, depositing $4.3 million USDC as margin for a total size of 113,000 ETH.

The wallet then started withdrawing funds, reducing the margin below maintenance requirements in a move that resulted in a $1.8 million profit for the user but a $4 million loss for Hyperliquid’s Hyperliquid Provider (HLP) vault.

Vaults are a blockchain-based product on Hyperliquid where users can deposit USDC to potentially earn a share of profits generated by trading strategies of other users or the vault’s owner.

The moves created speculation among Hyperliquid users of a possible exploit of the platform, a rumor it doused in an X post.

“There was no protocol exploit or hack,” Hyperliquid said. “This user had unrealized PNL, withdrew, which lowered their margin, and was liquidated. They ended with ~$1.8M in PNL. HLP lost ~$4M over the past 24h. HLP’s all-time PNL remains at ~$60M. As a reminder, HLP is not a risk-free strategy.”

Hyperliquid added that it will update the maximum leverage for bitcoin (BTC) and ETH to 40x and 25x, respectively, to increase maintenance margin requirements for larger positions as a preventive measure for similar moves in the future.

Hyperliquid’s HLP vault still has an all-time profit of $60 million, data shows. Meanwhile, the platform’s HYPE token dropped from $14 to under $13 in a knee-jerk move after the liquidation, though it has since fully recovered the brief slide as of late Asian hours.

Shiba Inu Whale Action Hints At Explosive 7,000% Growth

Shiba Inu (SHIB) has had a tough market in the last six months, losing more than half of its value. At $0.0000138 now, the token is down 70% from its March high of $0.000045. Such a plunge is steep and stressful for investors who bought during its peak. Yet a faint glow of hope seems to emanate from the market as it sees a modest 6.5% gain over the last week.

Crypto analyst LuckSide thinks that SHIB will experience a huge rally in the coming months, considering mostly whale activity as an encouraging reason. Meanwhile, based on an examination by crypto analyst Dexter, and CoinCodex, development may be slightly below par, so SHIB will not be able to boast high short-term returns, but the long-term value is really massive. By the middle of October, according to CoinCodex, SHIB may fall down by -0.51% at best and reach $0.00001330.

Whale Activity: The Main Catalyst

One of the most impressive developments in the Shiba Inu market is the drastic increase in whales’ activity. In a mere two days, whales accumulated over 3 trillion SHIB tokens, which shows that these large holders and other major investors have regained interest in this asset. Whales have also withdrawn over $4 million worth of SHIB from exchanges; this, in most cases, is an indicator that confidence remains high in the long-term prospects of the meme coin.

LuckSide believes this accumulation will spur a strong price rally. He projects that eventually, SHIB can go up to $0.001, marking an increase of 7,145% from the present day. Despite this prediction, LuckSide claims that whales’ movements usually herald a considerable market shift. He also believes the man in the street will buy in if Shiba Inu can succeed in breaching its significant resistance level of $0.000016, which is just 16% higher than its price today.

Bearish Sentiment Persists

Still, not all digits indicate an upward trend. The current market for Shiba Inu, in the Fear & Greed Index is dim at 33 (Fear). CoinCodex also made some predictions regarding SHIB and it indeed agrees with the conservative point of view: by October 17, 2024, a minute drop of -0.51% is forecasted, and may get down to $0.00001330.

Shiba Inu has failed to maintain the momentum after several successive positive movements. The coin had green days only 50% in the last month, and the price volatility remained at 4.49%.

Data from CoinCodex and other websites do not consider this as a good buy, primarily due to easy money makers. Broader market hesitancy is reflected in the softened price action that makes the short-term prospects unattractive.

Long-Term Potential Still In Play

While the short-term future of SHIB is unsure, some analysts still hold hope that the coin will experience a long term upside. For example, crypto trader Dexter says Shiba Inu easily reaches the threshold of $0.00015, which is a 10-fold increase.

LuckSide’s model is much more aggressive than Dexter’s model; however, this is much less – but still gives room for optimistic investors to stay and wait. According to him, meme coins like SHIB usually have episodic surges, most especially when whales begin rallying.

Featured image from Pexels, chart from TradingView

$3 Million PEPE Gamble Sparks Speculation Of Incoming Price Surge

Within the past week, an aggressive accumulation of 420 billion PEPE tokens in two transactions worth 3.13 million USDT has been made by a crypto whale identified as “cookislandstrust.eth”. This strategic move, starting at the height of the market dip on August 5, has returned a profit of $170,000—equating to a 5.5% gain.

Whale’s Big Appetite

However, the whale’s action did not stop at PEPE. The same day, they bought nearly 3,000 Ether against 7.05 million USDT during the market slump for an unrealized profit of $534,000, up 7.58%. This double investment in wildly fluctuating PEPE and more stable Ethereum reveals how this whale precisely calculated its actions to generate the most from turbulent market situations.

Obviously, this big whale regards Ethereum as some form of fortress, especially when turmoil occurs within the markets. The move reflects a far greater sentiment the big guys have: Ethereum remains a safe bet, especially when quakes are experienced in the market. Now, this really shows how calculated this whole shift into various volatile and stable assets was on the part of that whale.

Pepe: Market Response And Investor Sentiment

“Cookislandstrust.eth” loves aggressive buying and has got the whole crypto community talking. Normally, when whales start to go upon bulk buying, people take it as a bullish signal. It simply denotes the fact that these big-time investors are of the view that the prices will go up in the future.

Now, more than ever, it’s in the hands of the traders and market lovers to critically follow the price of PEPE in order to see whether this will be just the tip of the iceberg. Will the whale’s confidence start a larger trend of accumulation?

Analyst Weighs In

PEPE’s performance in the recent past has been nothing close to stable. The meme coin is quite volatile in its price swings, classifying it as one of the riskiest investments one can make. Yet it cautions some of the biggest investors, who buy into the hype or speculation.

Well, just recently, Crypto Titans, a pseudonymous analyst, shared that PEPE could be set for a significant price move. The analyst noted that this formed a bullish pennant on the daily chart, therefore suggesting an extension of the uptrend. More so, a bullish flag pattern was further spotted on the 4-hour chart to indicate continuity of the momentum.

Crypto Titans believe that if PEPE breaks out from both patterns, its price could dramatically skyrocket to $0.00000888 for a 100% increase from its current level. He also warned, though, that it could potentially mean a retest of lower support levels if this upper trend line doesn’t break, adding a level of uncertainty to the forecast. The actions of the whale mean that profits could pay off big, but they also show the risks involved in timing the market.

In a market downturn, analyst like cookislandstrust.eth will let you know what the sentiment is. While, certainly very risky, these tremendous buys that this whale made in PEPE and Ethereum do make a case for fast trades. That is the issue with the high volatility of crypto: what works for one whale doesn’t necessarily fit with what works for normal investors.

Crypto Titans, on the other hand, remains optimistic about gains that PEPE would attain if certain patterns do materialize, but advises a degree of prudence. In this crypto market, the timing and the analysis are very essential but not sufficient. One has to be very cautious and do their own research because the strategies may not work out with everyone.

Featured image from X/@rarepepe_dao, chart from TradingView

Why Did This Crypto Whale Spend $400 Million Buying Bitcoin Yesterday?

On-chain data shows a particular Bitcoin whale who accumulated almost $400 million between July 30 and 31. This whale is believed to have purchased the flagship crypto, having seen an opportunity to profit massively thanks to Bitcoin’s recent price action

Bitcoin Whale Purchases Almost $400 Million Worth Of BTC

On-chain analytics platform Lookonchain revealed in an X (formerly Twitter) post that a Bitcoin whale (12QVs…oN2qo) has withdrawn 5,800 BTC ($387.88 million) from Binance in the past two days. This purchase suggests the whale anticipates higher prices from the flagship crypto soon enough and is looking to profit from such a price rally when the time comes. 

Interestingly, this purchase comes amid a decline in Bitcoin’s price, meaning that the whale sees this as a ‘buy the dip’ opportunity. Bitcoin dropped to as low as $63,500 on July 31, having rebounded to almost $70,000 days ago. This price drop can be attributed to several factors, including concerns over reports that Iran had ordered a retaliatory attack against Israel for killing Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran. 

The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting was held on July 31, and the Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged. Fed Chair Jerome Powell also said little to suggest that an interest rate cut could come in September, another factor contributing to Bitcoin’s recent decline. 

Despite its recent decline, Bitcoin is expected to enjoy another rebound soon enough and possibly break above the $70,000 range on its next leg up and rise to an all-time high (ATH). Crypto analyst Michael van de Poppe recently mentioned that Bitcoin looks good to continue toward a new ATH next month as long as the flagship crypto stays above $60,000 to $62,000.

Whales Heavily Accumulated BTC In July

Data from the market intelligence platform IntoTheBlock shows that Bitcoin whales, holding at least 0.1% of BTC’s circulating supply, bought over 84,000 BTC in July. This represents these whales’ largest monthly wave of Bitcoin accumulation since October 2014. These investors looked to take advantage of the price dips that Bitcoin suffered in July. 

Bitcoin’s price crashes in June extended into the beginning of July, as the flagship crypto dropped to as low as $55,000. However, this BTC accumulation from these whales paid off, as the crypto token enjoyed a massive rebound in the latter parts of July and a monthly close in the green. 

These whales will still hope Bitcoin can record more impressive gains in August. Data from Cryptorank shows that Bitcoin has historically not enjoyed the best price action in August, ending the month in the red on eight occasions since 2011. 

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading at around $64,400, down almost 3% in the last 24 hours, according to data from CoinMarketCap. 

Bitcoin price chart from Tradingview.com

Dogecoin Sees Rapid Accumulation Amid Price Crash, Whale Transactions Soar

Dogecoin (DOGE) whales look to have used this recent price crash as an opportunity to accumulate the foremost meme coin. This provides a positive development for Dogecoin, and the meme coin has already reacted positively, seeing how its price has recovered in the last 24 hours. 

Dogecoin Whales Accumulate More DOGE

Data from the market intelligence platform IntoTheBlock shows that Dogecoin witnessed $1 billion in large transactions these past few days. Large transactions refer to ones that involve $100,000 worth of Dogecoin or more being traded. An increase in the large transactions suggests that whales are either accumulating more Dogecoin or looking to offload their tokens. 

Dogecoin 1

Further data from IntoTheBlock suggests that these whales are indeed accumulating more Dogecoin following this recent market decline. The net flows to exchanges metric has been negative over the past seven days, which shows that these whales have been buying the dip rather than moving their holdings to exchanges to offload their tokens. 

Dogecoin 2

This presents a bullish outlook for DOGE and again highlights these investors’ conviction in the foremost meme coin. This wave of accumulation by Dogecoin whales is also significant as it could help spark a price recovery for Dogecoin, which had dropped to as low as $0.11 following the recent market decline. 

Besides this wave of accumulation, Dogecoin already looked poised to rebound to the upside as the market value to realized value (MVRV) ratio showed that the meme coin was greatly undervalued at its current price levels. Crypto analyst Kriss Pax also recently predicted that Dogecoin should enjoy a massive bounce from here and significantly move to the upside. 

The analyst alluded to DOGE’s relative strength index (RSI) which he noted painted a bullish picture for the meme coin. Interestingly, he suggested this was the right time to buy Dogecoin as he didn’t foresee the meme coin going lower than its current price level. Pax also alluded to the growing altcoin dominance, which could usher in the altcoin season when coins like Dogecoin are expected to enjoy a massive rally. 

DOGE Will Still Reach As High As $2 In This Market Cycle

Crypto analyst Crypto Kaleo recently provided a bullish narrative for Dogecoin, predicting that the foremost meme coin can rise to $1 and $2 in this bull run. He noted that the foremost meme coin has traded sideways for most of its existence, but when it pumps, it is always parabolic, alluding to how the meme coin had rallies where it enjoyed a 6,000% and 30,000% price gain in the past. 

Dogecoin 3

Crypto Kaleo mentioned that these moves occurred 8 to 9 months after the previous halvings. Based on historical trends, it is fitting that DOGE doesn’t enjoy a real breakout until sometime between December this year and February next year. 

Crypto Kaleo predicts that Dogecoin could drop to as low as $0.08, retracing its price levels before the massive rally it enjoyed this year. He claims that such a move would be similar to the -30% drawdown and retrace that occurred in August 2020, several months before Dogecoin wet mainstream and began to pump massively. 

Dogecoin price chart from Tradingview.com

Here’s How This Ethereum Whale Made $16 Million From A Single Trade

An Ethereum whale was recently revealed to have made $16 million from a single trade involving the second-largest crypto token by market cap. This whale’s story again highlights how conviction in an investment can be very rewarding in the crypto space. 

How This Ethereum Whale Made $16 Million In A Single Trade

On-chain analytics platform Lookonchain revealed in an X (formerly Twitter) post that the whale withdrew 12,906 ETH ($24.39 million) from Binance when the crypto token was still trading at $1,890 a year ago. With Ethereum currently trading at around $3,100, the whale’s ETH investment is now worth over $40 million, signifying a profit of about $16 million. 

Interestingly, his profits from this trade will likely be more than $16 million, as the trader deposited those tokens in the staking platform Lido when he withdrew them from Binance last year. That means he also earned significant staking rewards to go alongside his $16 million profit. 

On-chain data shows the whale recently withdrew 7,000 ETH ($21 million) from Lido back to Binance but has yet to offload these tokens. However, that is something to keep an eye on as the whale offloading those tokens could have a negative impact on Ethereum’s price. 

Tron’s founder, Justin Sun, looks to be another Ethereum whale that could make such significant returns on their ETH investment. Two wallets believed to belong to Sun are reported to have accumulated 295,757 ETH ($891M) at an average price of $3,014 since February 12. Since then, Sun has made some notable moves that could be profitable for him.

One such move is that the Tron founder recently deposited 120,000 eETH into Swell L2, a liquid restaking protocol. Although Sun claims that this move isn’t profit-motivated, he could still make huge profits from his venture, considering that restaking is one of the leading narratives at the moment. 

The Bull Run Presenting A Lot Of Opportunities

There have been a lot of reports highlighting how crypto investors and traders have been making life-changing, which suggests that the bull run is already in full force despite Bitcoin’s unimpressive price action lately. One opportunity that these traders have taken advantage of in this market cycle is meme coins

Before the bull run began, there was the belief that memes would be one of the leading narratives, and that has been the case. Bitcoinist recently reported two Solana meme coin traders turned $6,400 into $8 million. Meanwhile, Lookonchain revealed a Solana trader who turned 60 SOL ($8,673) into $1.26 million in 2 months, making a 144x return on his investment. 

Ethereum price chart from Tradingview.com