XRP Price Surged 7X the Last Time This Happened on a South Korean Exchange

The available supply of XRP on some crypto exchanges is starting to decline as the coin undergoes a major price surge.

This week, XRP’s price broke back above $2.4 for the first time since November 2024. The move was widely celebrated in the crypto community, especially since it came without any XRP-specific news, Ripple updates, or regulatory milestones. Market commentators have begun theorizing that a move to new peaks could be underway.

Amid the frenzy, widely followed market watcher Xaif tweeted that the XRP reserves of major South Korean exchange Upbit are declining, citing data from CryptoQuant.

Indeed, CryptoQuant’s data shows Upbit had an XRP reserve of 6.264 billion XRP as of January 1. As of today, the available balance is 6.233 billion, meaning 31 million XRP have been moved out of the exchange in just one week.

Xaif pointed out that when a larger volume of XRP flowed out of Upbit back in November 2024, it coincided with the token’s price moving from $0.5 to $3.34—a nearly 7X surge. With outflows resuming again, he suggests another repeat of history may be underway.

Other South Korean Exchanges See Dip in XRP Reserve

A similar trend is observable with Bithumb, another major South Korean cryptocurrency exchange. It had 1.818 billion XRP as of January 3 but currently holds 1.808 billion — a drop of 10 million XRP in five days.

Likewise, Bitstamp held 20.19 million XRP as of January 5 but now holds 15.5 million—a 5 million XRP decline in three days. Other exchanges also seeing declines in XRP reserves in the first week of January include KuCoin and HTX Global.

Diverging Trends

Interestingly, during this time, exchanges like Binance, Bitfinex, and Bitget are all reporting a surge in XRP reserves over the last few days. For instance, Binance had 2.639 billion XRP as of December 29 but now holds 2.687 billion.

Similarly, Bitget had 2.705 million XRP as of December 18 but now controls more than twice that volume, with its XRP reserve now at 6.044 million.

Notably, exchanges that recorded surges in XRP reserves saw most of the increase occurring in January as XRP’s price rose. This suggests that while South Korean market participants likely moved their XRP to private wallets, other traders in international markets transferred theirs to liquid exchanges to capitalize on the rally.

This may explain why XRP’s price has dipped 7.34% in the last 24 hours to $2.1, just two days after trading at $2.41. Essentially, some traders have chosen to realize gains without waiting for a potential run to new all-time highs.

Emerging Trend in XRP ETFs

XRP ETFs have also started recording outflows. At the close of business on Wednesday, XRP ETFs recorded $40.8 million in outflows for the first time since inception. This was influenced by a massive $47.25 million sale by 21Shares XRP ETFs.

Other ETFs, like Canary, Bitwise, and Franklin, registered inflows, but these were far insufficient to counter the selling pressure from 21Shares. Meanwhile, XRP ETFs continue to boast $1.53 billion in total assets.

Despite ETF outflows and a massive spike in Binance’s reserves, optimism remains high for XRP’s price this year.