Certain large XRP investors significantly increased their holdings in the two months leading up to Ripple's legal victory against the Securities and Exchange Commission, raising questions about potential insider knowledge.
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse announced earlier this week that the SEC has dropped its appeal in the long-running lawsuit, effectively ending the four-year legal battle. "The case is now over," Garlinghouse declared in his groundbreaking statement.
The announcement triggered an immediate price surge for XRP, which jumped from $2.3 to $2.6 within an hour—a multi-week high. This dramatic increase briefly propelled XRP past Tether (USDT) in market capitalization, making it the top performer on a 24-hour scale among major cryptocurrencies.
The gains proved short-lived, however. XRP has since retreated to approximately $2.4, with USDT reclaiming its position in the market cap top three.
According to analytics firm Santiment, wallets holding at least one million XRP tokens increased their collective holdings by 6.5% during the two months preceding Garlinghouse's announcement. These large-scale investors now control a total of 46.4 billion XRP coins. "XRP has decoupled from the altcoin pack, surging another +14% and breaching the $2.50 resistance for the first time in 12 days," Santiment noted in a March 19 social media post.
The firm's analysis also revealed that Ripple network activity exploded in March, with six times more unique wallets interacting with the network compared to previous months. This surge stands in stark contrast to most other blockchain networks, which have experienced declining user engagement recently.
Several potential indicators that the case might conclude favorably had emerged in recent months, including similar lawsuit resolutions and claims from former White House officials that the matter was already settled. Whether large investors acted on public signals or had access to non-public information remains unclear.
The vocal XRP community quickly began circulating ambitious price predictions following the legal victory. Some supporters anticipate new all-time highs, while skeptics warn of a potential "sell-the-news" reaction that could drive prices downward now that the primary catalyst has materialized.
XRP previously experienced triple-digit price increases after Donald Trump's election victory last year, fueled by speculation about regulatory changes. The cryptocurrency was even mentioned by Trump as a potential addition to the nation's strategic crypto reserve. Despite these positive developments, XRP failed to maintain its upward momentum.
With the legal saga apparently concluded and initial excitement subsiding, market participants now question whether XRP will achieve its long-anticipated new all-time high or succumb to profit-taking pressure in a classic market pattern.