XRP Ledger Whale activity spiked sharply at the start of the week, with on-chain data provider Santiment flagging a wave of high-value transfers that pushed the network to its highest number of transactions above $100,000 in about three months, a situation the company says typically coincides with increased volatility.
XRP whales are waking up again
“XRP Ledger has seen a large increase in whale transactions (worth $100,000 or more on the network),” Santiment wrote in a post on Wednesday via X next to a Sanbase chart. “Monday it was 2,170 and yesterday it shot all the way up to 2,802 (a three-month high). Volatility should be higher than normal.”
The chart labeled “XRP $1M+ & $100K+ Whale Transactions Per Day” highlights two specific data points for the $100K+ threshold: 2,170 transactions on January 5, 2026 and 2,802 transactions on January 6, 2026. The January 6 print is marked as the local peak and, according to Santiment commentary, the strongest reading in about three months, the highest since the infamous October month. 10 liquidation event.
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While Santiment’s post highlights transfers over $100,000, the chart also tracks whale transactions over $1 million. This series indicates that activity from large investors across a range of size ranges has increased since the early January move, with trades rising from $1 million to a one-month high, the strongest since early December.
The jump is notable because activity above $1 million appears to have been relatively subdued through most of December, especially when compared to the period from mid-October to November, when the chart shows more frequent days with higher numbers.
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In practical market terms, traders tend to view breakouts in large on-chain transfers for what they might represent, rather than treating the raw counts as a guiding signal. Spikes may reflect accumulation or distribution, internal treasury movements by large entities, stock market-related transfers, or positioning around liquidity events. What they often have in common is the mechanical impact: when large holders change size, the likelihood of sharper intraday swings increases, especially if that activity continues over multiple sessions.
XRP is also returning to the social ‘trending’ set once again
The whale transaction alert landed alongside a separate Santiment update that placed XRP among the assets that saw the biggest jumps in discussion on social channels. In that post, Santiment grouped XRP with Solana, Ethereum, Bitcoin, MicroStrategy and Litecoin as the top “trending” tickers of the day, based on changes in conversation volume for Wednesday.
Specific to XRP, Santiment said the discussion mix was strongly institutional in tone: ETF flows, “record-breaking net assets” and the idea of These claims were presented as themes circulating in social conversations, rather than as independently verified developments in the post itself.
At the time of writing, XRP was trading at $2,127.
Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com