XRP Price Jumps 25% to $1.24 as Whale Accumulation Accelerates

XRP price surged more than 25% early Thursday, reaching an intraday high of $1.245 as the broader cryptocurrency market rallied and Bitcoin climbed above $72,000. The sharp move follows months of steady XRP whale accumulation and renewed activity across spot and derivatives markets.

Onchain data from CryptoQuant indicates that average XRP spot order sizes have remained within its “big-whale” range throughout 2026. The trend suggests that large holders have been quietly accumulating XRP despite periods of relatively subdued price action.

Crypto analyst Ali recently highlighted another significant buying wave, reporting that XRP whales accumulated roughly 300 million tokens within just 96 hours. The buying coincides with growth among high-value XRP holders. According to Santiment, the number of XRP millionaire wallets increased by 32 over the past three months.

XRP began its latest advance Wednesday after touching a low near $0.99. The cryptocurrency then accelerated from approximately $1.08 to $1.24 on Thursday, producing a gain of more than 25% from Wednesday's low. At the time of the original report, XRP was trading around $1.23, up 22% over 24 hours and approximately 24% for the week.

The XRP rally was preceded by notable increases in network activity and derivatives positioning. CryptoQuant reported that XRP open interest on Binance climbed to approximately $461.3 million, its highest level in two months. Santiment also observed XRP's strongest activity in more than two months after activity had approached 2026 lows earlier in July.

Meanwhile, institutional developments on the XRP Ledger could provide another catalyst for the ecosystem. Cicada Partners is bringing institutional credit expertise and a borrower pipeline to XRPL, using Clearpool infrastructure built around the XRPL Lending Protocol and Single Asset Vault.

Ripple is participating as a liquidity provider in the credit fund alongside institutional co-investors. The initiative expands XRPL's potential role in institutional-grade lending while XRP benefits from stronger whale demand, increased trading activity and improving market momentum.