XRP price continued to consolidate on Monday as investors awaited a catalyst. Ripple was trading at $2.30, a level it has remained at since last week. It even missed last week’s crypto bull run as Bitcoin soared to a record high. This article explains why the ongoing whale accumulation may lead to higher prices of $5.
XRP Price Could Surge as Whale Buying Continues
According to Santiment data, the ongoing XRP price consolidation might represent the calm before the eventual storm. These numbers show that whales have continued to accumulate the coin in the past few months.
Data shows that whales holding between 1 million and 10 million XRP coins have bought over 3.9 billion XRP coins in the past 12 months. Their holdings have increased to 6.05 billion from 3.9 billion compared to last year.
Similarly, XRP holders with between 10 million and 100 million tokens now hold 7.76 billion coins, up from 6.5 billion in the same period last year. This whale accumulation indicates that investors expect its price to keep soaring in the coming months.
The most bullish catalyst for the XRP price is the rising odds that the SEC will approve all or some of the 9 ETF applications. An ETF approval may lead to a higher price as investors anticipate more demand from Wall Street investors.
Odds of higher inflows for the XRP ETF arise from the recently launched XXRP ETF, which charges a 1.89% fee and has continued to gain traction among investors. It has added over $112 million in assets in less than two months, beating Solana’s leveraged ETF (SOLT) launched in February, which has less than $30 million in assets.
XRP price has other potential catalysts this year. Ripple Labs is in talks to acquire Circle, a move that would make it a key player in the fast-growing stablecoin industry. It also aims to expand its XRP Ledger by integrating Hidden Road transactions.
Ripple Price Technical Analysis
The other bullish catalyst for the XRP price is that it is slowly forming a bullish pennant pattern on the daily chart. This pattern comprises a symmetrical triangle.
The two lines of the triangle are converging, often signaling a bullish breakout. If this happens, the initial target to watch will be the year-to-date high of $3.40, which is about 47% above the current level. A break above that price will point to more gains, potentially to the psychological point at $5.
READ MORE: Circle Explores $5B Sale to Coinbase or Ripple Ahead of Planned IPO
