The XRP price skyrocketed after Donald Trump announced his Strategic Crypto Reserve on Sunday, which is set to include the third-largest cryptocurrency by market cap. While XRP surged by more than 20% yesterday, today’s market paints a different picture. The token has dropped 17.55%, currently trading at $2.30.
According to recent data, it is primarily crypto whales who are currently selling off their XRP holdings.
Whales Are Dumping Record Amounts of XRP
It appears that large-scale XRP investors saw Trump’s announcement as an ideal opportunity to take profits. Over the past few weeks, there has been a significant increase in XRP sell-offs between the $2 and $3 price range, as noted by CryptoQuant founder Ki Young Ju.
While such activity could also indicate the presence of large buyers, Ki Young Ju believes that XRP is currently in a “distribution phase.” This is a market cycle in which major investors gradually offload their holdings, typically putting downward pressure on prices.
This distribution phase usually occurs during an uptrend, as whales cash in profits from their initial investments.
The chart below clearly shows the enormous amount of XRP being offloaded by whales.
XRP Struggles to Hold Above $2.50
Despite the recent bullish momentum, XRP has been unable to maintain its All-Time High Volume-Weighted Average Price (VWAP) of $2.70, according to the well-known pseudonymous analyst Dom.
$XRP update
Pullback occurred as anticipated, but price failed to hold ATH VWAP and VAH
We've fallen back to the band of VWAPs that XRP has been toying with for months
We definitely want to see these hold, more so the $2.50 range
No immediate bullish trend would need to… pic.twitter.com/TRFsVATV5c
— Dom (@traderview2) March 3, 2025
For XRP to sustain its rally, Dom emphasizes that the token must remain above the critical $2.50 support level. However, that is currently not the case, suggesting that XRP could face further downside pressure.
Not Just XRP—The Entire Market Faces a Downturn
XRP’s struggles are not isolated—the entire financial market took a hit yesterday. The Nasdaq dropped by 2.20%, while the S&P 500 declined by 1.76%.
One of the biggest losers was Nvidia, whose stock price plummeted by 8.69%. Analysts attribute these market-wide losses to growing concerns about the U.S. economic outlook, prompting investors to seek refuge in government bonds.
