Data from the on-chain analytics platform Santiment reveals a massive XRP whale activity that took place last week. Latest data on March 17, showed that whales have accumulated more than 200 million XRP tokens worth over $460 million over the last seven days.
In fact, it is the second largest whale activity on XRP in March after the accumulation of over $700 million in XRP tokens earlier this month.
This massive XRP whale activity can be attributed to a couple of factors: the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reportedly dropping its five-year old lawsuit against Ripple, potential approval of XRP ETFs, and XRP’s mention in President Donald Trump’s executive order regarding the Crypto Strategic Reserve.
The SEC charged Ripple in December 2020 with the alleged sale of unregistered securities. A court ruled in August 2023 that though the sale of XRP tokens to institutional investors violated securities laws, the sale of the tokens to retail investors did not constitute a sale of securities.
Though the payments company secured a partial victory in the court, it was slapped with a $125 million fine.
The SEC is now reportedly considering dropping the charges against Ripple. The company’s lawyers are negotiating a more favorable deal than the $125 million fine.
Meanwhile, the SEC has received five ETF applications tied to XRP. The final deadline for the regulator to approve these ETFs is October 2025.
Given such developments, there has been optimism regarding XRP in the market. On March 16, a prominent pseudonymous analyst shared on X (formerly Twitter) that XRP will outperform other major cryptocurrencies in the coming months.
However, there has been no dramatic surge in the value of XRP lately. As per Kraken's price feeds, the asset was trading at $2.33 at press time.