Full story
Whales absorb, Ether lags
CryptoQuant says large XRP spot orders point to "quiet accumulation" rather than a breakout, while ether’s price below realized value leaves holders underwater and gives it the strongest valuation case among BTC, ETH and XRP.
“CryptoQuant said large XRP spot orders point to "quiet accumulation" rather than a breakout”
CoinDesk reported that XRP holders have continued accumulating through the token’s slide from about $2.40 in January to roughly $1.00 to $1.20, and that the market has not been lifted by those buys.
CoinDesk also said ether trades around $1,900 as of Thursday against a realized price near $2,450, while bitcoin is roughly 17% above its $52,900 realized price and XRP sits near $1.10 against about $0.75.
CoinDesk added that CryptoQuant warns the market may still face one more leg lower before a durable floor is established, with Ether’s below-cost trading seen as the key metric to watch.
Bloomingbit likewise framed the pattern as bear-market late stage positioning, saying Julio Moreno told it that "That is what accumulation in a bear market looks like," and that strong hands are absorbing supply from weak hands.
Signals, not a bottom
Bloomingbit reported that CryptoQuant said whale holdings across Bitcoin, Ether and XRP are increasing while prices remain near or below realized price, and that Julio Moreno said the market has not yet confirmed a bottom and prices could still fall further.
CoinDesk described how XRP’s spot order sizes have stayed in what CryptoQuant classifies as “big-whale” territory throughout 2026, while 90-day taker cumulative volume delta has drifted to neutral after a taker-buy-dominant start to the year.
CoinDesk said CryptoQuant interprets the neutral CVD as accumulation through passive absorption rather than aggressive buying, calling it a basing range rather than capitulation or a confirmed breakout.
In DiarioBitcoin, the same CryptoQuant framing is repeated with a focus on the $1.00 to $1.20 XRP range and the idea that the market has not reached a confirmed minimum even as whales position themselves.
AD HOC NEWS added a separate technical framing, saying XRP changed hands near $1.05 on Wednesday, down roughly 1.3 percent on the day and sitting more than 20 percent below its 200-day moving average.
Institutional scaffolding grows
Beyond price signals, AD HOC NEWS said the institutional scaffolding around the XRP Ledger has never been more substantial, while it described XRP futures open interest collapsing to roughly $2.25 billion, the lowest reading in six months.
“Open interest in XRP futures has collapsed to roughly $2.25 billion”
AD HOC NEWS reported that July inflows across XRP products totaled roughly $27 million, a 54 percent decline from the prior month, while four consecutive sessions of positive net inflows totaled about $15.4 million and cumulative flows since launch reached roughly $1.51 billion.
The same AD HOC NEWS piece quoted Ripple President Monica Long describing tokenized real-world assets reaching $4.34 billion and calling it a turning point, while it also said banks are moving pilot projects on the ledger into production.
In The Block’s coverage as relayed by CoinDesk, CryptoQuant’s analysis tied the whale behavior to late-stage bear-market dynamics, while CoinDesk emphasized that ether’s below-cost trading is the key metric to watch for a durable floor.
Separately, DiarioBitcoin said CryptoQuant’s report interprets the pattern as consistent with a late-stage bear market even though it is not confirmed that a minimum has been reached, and it cited Julio Moreno’s view that strong hands are absorbing supply from weak hands.
