XRP\u2019s largest holders are undergoing a sharp structural shift on the XRP Ledger: there are significantly fewer \u201cwhale and shark\u201d wallets than two months ago, yet the remaining large accounts now custody more XRP than at any point in the past seven years, according to new data from on-chain analytics firm Santiment.<\/p>\n
In a post<\/a> on X, Santiment described what it called \u201ca fascinating trend\u201d in the behavior of the network\u2019s biggest holders. The firm wrote: \u201cXRP Ledger is seeing a fascinating trend of whale & shark wallets shrinking in number, but continuing to grow in coins held. There are -20.6% less 100M+ $XRP wallets compared to 8 weeks ago, but they still own a 7-year high 48B coins collectively.\u201d<\/p>\n The accompanying chart, taken from Santiment\u2019s Sanbase analytics platform, tracks wallets holding at least 100 million XRP \u2013 the cohort the firm labels \u201cwhales and sharks.\u201d The visual is split into two main panels, each overlaid with XRP\u2019s price in weekly candlesticks.<\/p>\n In the upper panel, a yellow line traces the number of 100M+ XRP wallets across roughly a one-year window. A highlighted callout notes that there are now \u201c569 less 100M+ XRP wallets in past 8 weeks, -20.6% drop.\u201d That is a steep contraction in a relatively short period for such a concentrated wealth bracket on a major network. The metric shows a pronounced decline<\/a> toward the right edge of the chart, while the XRP price has also fallen sharply.<\/p>\n The lower panel focuses on the aggregate holdings of that same wallet cohort. Here, a blue line representing the combined balance of all 100M+ addresses climbs to a multi-year peak. The annotation on the chart states: \u201cOver 48B XRP held by 100M+ wallets, 7-year high.\u201d In other words, despite the double-digit percentage drop in the number of very large wallets, the total amount of XRP they control has continued to increase and now sits at its highest level since at least 2018, based on Santiment\u2019s data window.<\/p>\n Taken together, the two panels depict a clear concentration dynamic on the XRP Ledger: fewer very large wallets, but a larger stockpile of coins controlled by those that remain in the 100M+ bracket. Mathematically, if the count of wallets<\/a> falls by more than one-fifth while the group\u2019s combined balance rises to a seven-year high of 48 billion XRP, the average balance per wallet in this tier must have increased markedly over the eight-week period highlighted by Santiment.<\/p>\n