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Over 3 billion XRP (Ripple) tokens have evaporated from cryptocurrency exchanges worldwide in 14 months, signaling a massive supply shock. Despite explosive accumulation by whales and institutional investors, combined with a positive regulatory environment, leading to a significant outflow of funds from exchanges, a peculiar phenomenon of price decline due to a lack of liquidity in the derivatives market has captured investors' attention.
According to crypto media outlet Finbold on April 23 (local time), XRP's exchange supply has sharply decreased over the past 14 months, significantly reducing the amount available for sale. According to Chachakobe4er, an on-chain data analyst on social media X, XRP supply on 41 cryptocurrency exchanges has decreased by over 3 billion tokens since February 24, 2025, currently standing at approximately 16 billion tokens. During this period, the sellable volume on exchanges plummeted by 16%, and in the last 24 hours alone, 3.33 million tokens, worth about $4.69 million, were withdrawn. Notably, Upbit, South Korea's largest exchange, holds the largest volume with approximately 6.47 billion tokens, followed by Binance (2.54 billion), Bithumb (1.82 billion), and Uphold (1.64 billion).
This large-scale reduction in supply is analyzed to be driven by a strong increase in demand from whale investors, presumed to be institutions. Furthermore, with regulatory clarity established after the launch of the Trump administration, expectations that Ripple Labs' share in the global cross-border payment market would expand through its financial products have fueled massive accumulation. According to Santiment on-chain data shared by Evernos Holdings, the number of long-term investors holding between 1,000 and 100,000 tokens increased to 1.1 million, and they accumulated approximately 11 million additional tokens daily in early April.
The outflow of XRP from exchanges has accelerated further this year. In February, investors withdrew a staggering 7 billion tokens from exchanges, marking the largest monthly outflow since November 2025. Additionally, in early April, the U.S. market saw the largest weekly cash inflow into XRP spot ETFs since mid-January, clearly indicating real demand from institutional and long-term investors in both on-chain data and financial products.
However, despite this explosive decrease in sellable supply and fierce demand from whales, XRP's actual price has failed to perform well. Unlike the strong buying trend since early 2025, the token's price has plummeted by over 36%, trading around $1.42 as of Thursday. The core reason for this peculiar phenomenon, which seems to defy the basic principles of supply and demand, lies in the depletion of liquidity, primarily in the derivatives market.
According to Coinglass data, the total open interest for XRP across all exchanges has not recovered to previous levels since the cryptocurrency market crash on October 11. While physical accumulation by whales is active, the significant decrease in speculative liquidity and trading vitality in the derivatives market means that the strong positive news of a sharp drop in exchange supply is unable to translate into a real price rally and remains hindered.
*Disclaimer: This article is for investment reference only, and we are not responsible for any investment losses based on it. The content should be interpreted for informational purposes only.*
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