XRP price might hit $0.6 as Grayscale makes bullish $10m move
Ripple (XRP) price looks set for bullish price action as whale investors react positively to a crucial announcement from Grayscale.
On Jan. 5, Grayscale announced that it had re-added XRP to its Digital Large Cap (GDLC) index fund after a two-year hiatus. According to the latest data as of Jan.9, XRP now composes 2.39% (~$10 million) of the $400 million fund.
Founded in 2013 as a Digital Currency Group (DCG) subsidiary, Grayscale Investments has become a prominent digital currency asset management company.
The asset manager had excluded XRP from its fund in 2020 after the US Securities and Exchange Commission SEC opened a lawsuit against Ripple.
In effect, the re-addition is a nod to the air of regulatory clarity surrounding the Ripple-backed cryptocurrency since U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres declared XRP “not a security” in July 2023.
Whales acquire XRP coins worth $70m after Grayscale’s u-turn
Remarkably, since Grayscale’s Jan. 5 announcement, on-chain data trends show that other corporate investors within the ecosystem have also reacted. Santiment’s Supply by Addresses on-chain metric tracks real-time changes in balances controlled by wallets holding at least $100,000 worth of a specific cryptocurrency
According to the latest readings, a strategic whale cohort (wallets holding balances of 1 million to 10 million XRP coins) made significant acquisitions in the last few days. As depicted below, those whales held 8.92 billion coins in their cumulative balances. But at the time of writing on Jan 9, the balances have increased to 8.99 billion.
This shows that corporate entities and high-networth investors have acquired an additional 70 million XRP between Jan. 5 and Jan. 9.
With XRP currently trading at $0.56, those newly-acquired 70 million coins are worth approximately $39.2 million. Typically, strategic investors consider it a bullish signal when whales dial up the buying pressure, as observed above.
If the whales sustain this buying trend, it could increase market demand disproportionately and boost confidence among other retail stakeholders within the ecosystem.
The chart above shows that recent price swings have been closely correlated to the whales’ historical buy/sell trends. If this pattern repeats, XRP holders can keep up hopes of a potential $0.60 retest in the days ahead.
XRP price prediction: can the bulls reclaim $0.60?
From an on-chain perspective, Grayscale’s announcement of its $10 million investment in XRP appears to have spurred a bullish reaction among other corporate investors. If the whales can sustain this buying trend, XRP price could reclaim the $0.60 territory in the coming days.
The Relative Strength Index (RSI) technical indicator supports this bullish price prediction. It shows that XRP RSI has recently broken into the 30+ area from below, signaling a potential bullish trend reversal.
For the bulls to seize the initiative, they must first scale the $0.60 territory. However, as depicted by the Bollinger middle band below, the bears could mount a significant sell-wall around $0.61.
However, a decisive breakout from that resistance zone could trigger a rally toward the $0.66 price range.
On the downside, the bears could invalidate this bullish XRP price forecast if it loses the vital $0.50 support level. However, this seems unlikely amid the crypto whales’ ongoing buying trend. To avert that bearish scenario, the bull could regroup around $0.55, as depicted above by the lower Bollinger Band.
