XRP price analysis: Can XRP break out as whales decline?

Ripple (XRP) price remained under pressure this week after a failed move above $1.60 pushed the token back below $1.50. 

At the time of writing, XRP traded near $1.44, with daily volume at $1.61 billion, a 24-hour decline of over 1%, and a 7-day gain of around 3%. The latest market data shows that XRP is still moving in a consolidation range. 

XRP tried to move higher in the middle of the week and briefly climbed above $1.60, marking a monthly high.  On the daily chart, XRP remains in a sideways pattern after its earlier decline. Price is trading near the middle of its recent range, which shows that buyers and sellers are still in balance rather than driving a clear trend.

Wallet growth rises as large holders decline

According to Santiment, the XRP Ledger continues to add more small and mid-sized wallets. Addresses holding less than 100 XRP rose to a record 5.66 million, while wallets holding between 100 and 100,000 XRP reached 2.01 million.

At the same time, wallets with more than 100,000 XRP fell to 32,054. That shows network growth is coming more from smaller holders, while the number of large-balance wallets has moved lower over the same period.

Additionally, Coinglass data also points to softer trading activity around XRP price. Volume fell 26% to $2.81 billion, while open interest dropped 1% to $2.50 billion. Options volume also declined 43% to $1.55 million, though options open interest edged up 2% to $59.54 million.

Since early January, XRP open interest has dropped from a peak near $4.6 billion to $4.8 billion to current levels around $2.50 billion. That shows leveraged positioning has cooled, even though open interest has been more stable since mid-February.

RSI and MACD point to limited momentum

Technical indicators also show a market without strong direction. RSI stands at 50, which places XRP in neutral territory rather than overbought or oversold conditions.

MACD remains slightly positive, with the MACD line at 0.0046 and the histogram at 0.0113. Still, the fading histogram shows bullish momentum has weakened. Taken together, wallet growth alone has not been enough to push XRP price out of consolidation.