Bitcoin (BTC) and XRP Whales Move $246,000,000 in Crypto As Rally Accelerates

The crypto market’s big rally has triggered an increase in activity from Bitcoin and XRP whales.

In the last 24 hours, Bitcoin whales have moved a total of 26,018 BTC worth $209.4 million, with the largest holders of XRP moving $37.2 million.

The largest single transaction sent 5,000 BTC worth $41.6 million from a wallet of unknown origin to the Coinbase-owned crypto custody platform Xapo.

Another hefty transfer sent 4,000 BTC worth $33.4 million from the crypto exchange Bitfinex to an unknown wallet.

According to the crypto transfer tracker Whale Alert, out of the 16 largest transfers in the last day, six involved cryptocurrency moving from an exchange to an unknown wallet.

None of those wallets appear to be owned by exchanges themselves, which suggests the movements are from traders who recently purchased BTC and are sending it to a private wallet for safekeeping.

An additional six transfers did the opposite, sending cryptocurrency from unknown wallets to exchanges, where they could be sold on the open market. The final four transfers involved crypto moving from one exchange to another.

• 800 BTC worth $6.6 million sent from Xapo to Binance
• 600 BTC worth $5.0 million sent from unknown wallet to Binance
• 5,000 BTC worth $41.6 million sent from unknown wallet to Xapo
• 836 BTC worth $6.9 million sent from unknown wallet to Xapo
• 791 BTC worth $6.5 million sent from Coinbase to Binance
• 1,000 BTC worth $8.2 million sent from Coinbase to Binance
• 4,000 BTC worth $33.4 million sent from Bitfinex to unknown wallet
• 1,000 BTC worth $8.1 million sent from unknown wallet to Bitstamp
• 1,234 BTC worth $10.0 million sent from Binance to unknown wallet
• 988 BTC worth $8.0 million sent from unknown wallet to Huobi
• 760 BTC worth $6.0 million sent from Coinbase to unknown wallet
• 842 BTC worth $6.7 million sent from OKEx to unknown wallet
• 2,750 BTC worth $21.3 million sent from OKEx to Binance
• 1,500 BTC worth $11.6 million sent from unknown wallet to Binance
• 1,384 BTC worth $10.7 million sent from OKEx to unknown wallet
• 2,433 BTC worth $18.8 million sent from OKEx to unknown wallet

Traders have also spotted a rise in XRP transfers, including one from the San Francisco-based payments startup Ripple.

The company owns more than half of the 100 billion XRP in existence and sent 50,000,000 XRP worth $11.5 million to a separate wallet that also appears to be controlled by Ripple itself.

In addition, large and unknown holders of XRP moved 117,500,000 million XRP worth $26.4 million in two transactions.

The smaller of the two transactions sent XRP from an anonymous wallet to the crypto exchange Bitstamp, with the larger transfer shifting crypto between two unknown wallets.

• 27,500,000 XRP worth $6.0 million sent from unknown wallet to Bitstamp
• 90,000,000 XRP worth $19.7 million sent from unknown wallet to unknown wallet

Meanwhile, Tether continues to print massive amounts of its popular and controversial stablecoin USTD, with 100,000 minted in the last day.

Tether has now minted more than $1 billion USDT in April, according to numbers from Whale Alert.

Tether has been accused of using USDT to prop up the price of Bitcoin. However, it maintains it is simply printing new coins when necessary to meet surges in demand for the crypto asset, which is designed to maintain a 1:1 peg with the US dollar.

Featured Image: Shutterstock/Mohamed Ali Elmeshad