In a surprising development for the cryptocurrency market, Coinbase has drastically reduced its holdings of XRP, dropping from more than 780 million tokens to approximately 200 million within weeks. According to data from XRPScan, this significant reduction of 69% aligns with broader trends involving institutional investors, particularly as Coinbase has strengthened its ties with major financial players like BlackRock.
Once positioned as the fifth-largest exchange holder of XRP, Coinbase has now fallen to the tenth spot following this drastic cutback. The reduction in its balance from around 780.13 million XRP to 199.47 million signifies a staggering 57% drop within just the past month. Such a rapid diminishment is indicative of strategic outflows likely spurred by institutional investors adjusting their portfolios.
Currently, Coinbase’s remaining XRP is stored across 11 cold wallets, each containing 16.5 million tokens. This marks a significant decline from early June when the exchange housed 52 cold wallets with a combined total of 970 million XRP. Insights from the social media platform X, referenced by an XRP commentator account known as XRPwallets, suggest that this rapid shift could be tied to BlackRock’s recent collaboration with Coinbase.
Announced in early August, this partnership aims to facilitate easier access to digital assets for institutional investors through Coinbase. Although the initial focus centered on Bitcoin, the collaboration has seemingly expanded its scope to include XRP, reflecting growing institutional interest in the token.
XRPwallets also speculated that the remaining XRP in Coinbase’s wallets is likely dominated by retail investors, a trend mirrored by other exchanges such as Uphold, Binance, and Upbit. These exchanges could similarly experience dips in XRP balances to around 200 million each as Ripple continues to distribute tokens. Estimates indicate that approximately 1 billion XRP could be held across various exchanges, while an additional 900 million might reside in retail cold wallets.
Complementing this trend, Upbit and Uphold have experienced remarkable decreases in their XRP holdings within the same timeframe as Coinbase. Upbit’s balance has plummeted from 6.03 billion XRP to 5.84 billion, while Uphold’s has dropped from 1.907 billion to 1.746 billion.
Despite this turmoil in holdings, XRP is presently trading below the $3 resistance level, experiencing several rejections throughout the month that have cast uncertainty on its short-term market trajectory. Nevertheless, diminished exchange balances often signal a reduction in sell pressure, which could foster price stability. Currently, XRP is trading at $2.83, representing a modest increase of 0.8% over the past 24 hours. As the market evolves, observers will be keenly watching how these shifts in XRP holdings impact its future performance.
