The XRP cryptocurrency has seen a notable surge in whale transactions despite a significant drop in its market value. 

Analytics firm Santiment reported that on Wednesday, the XRPLedger risked falling below a $0.50 mark for the first time since Oct. 19. 

Despite this decline, there was a record number of large transactions on the network, with 217 transactions exceeding $1 million each. 

Strong whale confidence 

Interestingly, the data from Santiment also indicated that large XRP holders are not panicking in the face of this price drop. 

Wallets holding at least 10 million XRP combined to own 67.2% of the available supply, the highest proportion since December 31, 2022. This data shows a certain level of confidence among major investors despite the price fluctuations. 

Furthermore, Santiment points out that XRP, currently the sixth-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, could be one of the better candidates for a price recovery, especially if Bitcoin, the leading cryptocurrency, manages to stabilize the market in the upcoming week.

A massive hack 

As reported by U.Today, Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen confirmed a significant security breach involving unauthorized access to several of his personal XRP accounts. The breach led to the theft of approximately 213 million XRP. This incident is the largest hack in the cryptocurrency space so far in 2024. The news of this breach caused a big plunge in the token's price. 

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse addressed the situation, denouncing "irresponsible speculation" about the security of Ripple-managed wallets. He clarified that no Ripple-managed wallets were compromised in this incident.