Ripple [XRP] February started around $1.60 as currency inflows into Binance remained relatively small. Most daily transfers remained below $20 million, reflecting a calm market positioning.
Meanwhile, the price gradually dropped to $1.55 as sellers slowly gained control.
Shortly thereafter, volatility increased around February 5, when XRP briefly fell near $1.20 before recovering sharply.
However, inflows during this decline remained close to $10 million, indicating that this move occurred without large deposits.
As the month progressed, XRP stabilized between $1.35 and $1.50, with inflows largely staying below $30 million.
This stable structure implied that most holders avoided aggressive distribution despite increasing geopolitical uncertainty in global markets.
Source: Darkfost/X
The momentum changed sharply after February 23.
Binance’s inflows rose above $115 million and then accelerated to $160 million around February 25. At the same time, the price only fluctuated between $1.35 and $1.45, indicating limited downward expansion.
Then, between February 26 and 28, another cluster of deposits appeared, some of which exceeded $150 million. All in all these peaks contributed to approximately $652 million coming into Binance.
This concentration suggests that large entities have repositioned liquidity in lieu of widespread retail capitulation due to geopolitical tensions.
Whales move first as XRP faces macro-driven market stress
Whale transfers for Binance remained relatively contained during most of XRP’s early cycles, including the 2018 rally to around $3.80.
However, activity increased noticeably after 2020 when XRP traded between $0.20 and $1.00, with occasional spikes above 10,000 trades, matching the volatility phases.
Source: CryptoQuant
More recently, whale flows have intensified. Since early 2025, several peaks exceeded 40,000 to 60,000 whale-to-exchange transactions, marking the highest activity in the dataset.
At the same time, XRP returned from above $2.50 to around $1.30-$1.40, indicating that deposits occurred during price weakness.
The entire Whale Stream series shows similar outbursts, with multiple peaks above 20,000 units. These moves likely reflect the whales positioning liquidity rather than retail panic.
Rising geopolitical tensions between the United States and Iran may have accelerated this defensive repositioning, increasing currency liquidity as uncertainty spread across risk markets.
XRP’s resilience is on display as futures markets reset
XRP derivatives activity shows traders are reducing leverage rather than aggressively building shorts. Futures Open interest fell to $2.17 billion while the price stabilized around $1.36.
In the meantime, Financing at the time of writing, slightly negative to -0.0011%, indicating a mild bearish bias. However, the long-short ratio is almost 49.6%, indicating that the positioning remains largely balanced.
Source: CoinGlass
Liquidations also remained limited at around $5.38 million, reinforcing the view that markets are deleveraging without cascading selling pressure.
Bitcoin [BTC] reflects a similar pattern. Are Open interest fell 2.48% to about $43.19 billion, while financing remained mixed.
Meanwhile, XRP/BTC climbed up to 0.00002057 as Bitcoin dominance held close to 58.1%. Together, these signals suggest that XRP flows reflect a strategic repositioning rather than systemic stress in the crypto market.
Final summary
- XRP exchange inflows totaling approximately $652 million and repeated whale transfers of over 40,000 transactions indicate a strategic repositioning of liquidity.
- Price stability around $1.35 despite falling Futures Open Interest and negative financing indicate controlled deleveraging as spot buyers absorb selling pressure.