XRP whales now control 68.5% of supply, the highest share since November 2022

Whale tracking by Santiment groups wallets holding at least 10 million XRP, a threshold meant to isolate large holders from retail. XRP has carried a concentration debate since Ripple's own escrow structure and the SEC's 2020 lawsuit over whether the token was a security, both of which kept scrutiny on who actually controls supply. The last time concentration reached this level was November 2022, during the FTX collapse, when large holders also absorbed coins while prices fell.

Traders now treat $1.20 and $1.50 as the boundaries that matter, with XRP sitting near $1.29 inside that range. Elevated derivatives activity means leveraged positions are amplifying moves within that band, so retail traders face sharper swings on thinner conviction. Large holders accumulating 46.87 billion tokens, meanwhile, gain outsized influence over any breakout or breakdown, since their buying or selling can move a market where nearly seven in ten tokens sit in few hands.

Accumulation during a price dip can read as conviction from informed holders, or as the kind of concentration that undercuts a token's claim to decentralization. Crypto Briefing's framing of the 68.5% figure as a manipulation risk is contested: others see whales simply buying weakness, a pattern common across majors. Either way, a supply this concentrated means price discovery depends less on broad participation and more on the decisions of a small set of wallets.

Santiment's data feed updates concentration figures regularly, so the next readings will show whether 68.5% is a peak or the start of a run past the November 2022 high. Price action at the $1.20 support and $1.50 resistance levels will indicate whether whale buying is absorbing sell pressure or simply sitting idle. A move through either level, combined with a further rise in whale share, would sharpen the question of who is actually setting XRP's price.