The cryptocurrency rally has expanded beyond the mainstream assets, with Ripple’s XRP token experiencing a notable surge on Monday. XRP soared over 20%, touching $0.74 at its peak, marking the highest level since a brief spike in November last year amid speculation about a potential BlackRock-managed XRP ETF.
The sharp rally in XRP came from mysterious large transfers worth millions of XRP tokens from the crypto exchange Binance. Blockchain data tracker Whale Alert reported a transfer of 300 million XRP, valued at around $187 million at the time, leaving Binance’s address and deposited into an unknown wallet. This transaction was followed by a series of similar outbound transfers, each worth 18-19 million XRP, from Binance to different addresses.
While the exact reason behind these transfers remains unclear, some crypto observers speculate that large investors, commonly referred to as whales, may have been accumulating XRP ahead of the price surge. However, it is also possible that the exchange was simply shifting coins to new addresses as part of an internal wallet maintenance process.
XRP’s rally could be a sign of traders rotating their capital to tokens that have been lagging behind the broader crypto market momentum. Despite the recent surge, XRP is still only up 17% year-to-date, substantially underperforming itcoin">Bitcoin’s 64% gain and the broad-market CoinDesk 20 Index’s 54% rise.
The rally in XRP was accompanied by similar gains in other older cryptocurrencies that had been laggards in recent months. Litecoin (LTC) and Dash (DASH) jumped 18% and 9%, respectively, over the past 24 hours, while Avalanche’s AVAX, Polkadot’s DOT, and Cardano’s ADA advanced between 8% and 13% during the day.
As the crypto rally broadens, investors appear to be shifting their focus to assets that have not yet experienced significant price appreciation, potentially seeking opportunities for higher returns in the evolving digital asset market.
