Another astonishing transfer has stunned the crypto community as more than $175 million worth of XRP was moved to a centralized exchange in the last two hours. This transaction comes amid an ongoing XRP rally triggered by the imminent launch of the RLUSD stablecoin.
Over the last 24 hours, XRP has posted a 3.31% gain and trading around $2.51 at the time of writing. This movement, alongside others, has triggered speculations among observers, brewing worries about a potential impact on the coin’s trajectory.
$175 Million XRP Transfer Details
Whale Alert, a known blockchain transaction tracker, flagged the movement and reported it on X (formerly Twitter). According to the service, a whale shifted exactly 69,300,000 XRP coins, valued at $175,875,867 ($175 million) to Binance, the largest crypto exchange by trade volume.
While this type of transfer is common, it has raised conjectures about its timing, as observers point at a likely upcoming sell-off event since it was deposited to CEX which is popular for its off-ramping ease.
Read Also: 800 Million XRP in One Day, What’s the Significance?
Source: Whale Alert/X
Meanwhile, analysis from Bithomp, an XRP explorer, disclosed that the sending address is also associated with Binance, which suggests a likely portfolio rebalancing and not a buy-sell action. Moreover, less than 24 hours ago, several significant XRP transfers were also recorded moving from Binance to another external wallet.
Precisely, one transaction moved 800 million XRP, while another carried 2.01 million and 5.85 million XRP respectively. While the volume was alarming, Bithomp analytics also suggested that they were moved by Binance as part of its internal fund management activities.
XRP Reacts to News of RLUSD Stablecoin Launch
In other news, XRP has reacted to the update on the official launch of RLUSD. Ripple announced in a press release on Monday that the much-anticipated stablecoin would hit the global market today, December 17.
The revelation sent excitement across the XRP community as reflected in the price of the coin, immediately spiking by 8% to trade at $2.58. At the time of writing, the coin’s price is still on a hike. On-chain data reveals that XRP traded at $2.70, indicating a 14.6% increase at the time of writing.
Source: CoinMarketCap
Moreover, its trading volume over the last day skyrocketed by 160% to reach $17.86 billion with a live market cap of $154 billion. Consequently, XRP now become the third most valuable cryptocurrency after Bitcoin (BTC), and Ethereum (ETH) once again.
At the time of launch, RLUSD would only be available across selected crypto exchanges including Uphold, CoinMena, Bitso, Moonpay, and Archax. Other exchanges are expected to be announced in the coming weeks.
Read Also: What is RLUSD? Everything You Need to Know About Ripple’s Stablecoin
