Ripple’s native token has not been spared by the broader market’s weakness, and it posted a 21-month low at just under $1.00 a couple of days ago. Moreover, it closed at its lowest level since November 2024, as its recovery above that psychological support hasn’t been all that impressive.

However, on-chain analysis from Santiment Intelligence shows that the actual story could be hiding somewhere else.

Price Down, Activity Up

Despite rebounding to $1.01 as of press time, XRP is still not out of the woods, and many analysts expect at least one more dip below that level, even the most bullish ones. The token remains 70% away from its all-time high registered approximately 13 months ago. However, the selling pressure doesn’t appear to be going away.

As reported earlier, the asset’s Taker Buy/Sell Ratio on Binance dropped to 0.86, its lowest reading since May. Since a figure below 1 indicates more aggressive selling than buying, the metric suggests derivatives traders remain firmly on the defensive.

Nevertheless, Santiment outlined the discrepancy in XRP price moves and network usage. Despite the multi-year low for the token, the daily active addresses have surged, averaging 35,700 a day in August against just 26,400 a month prior. Moreover, August 11, the day that XRP actually dipped below $1.00, was the busiest since early June.

However, one of the issues stems from the flatness of new addresses, which have remained relatively stagnant compared to July – 2,260 now against 2,270 last month. As such, Santiment concluded that the “rising user activity” narrative is only “half right.”

“The existing base is transacting more, and the wallet count is not growing with it. Activity is up. The user base is not.”

Whales Still Present

Another report from earlier this week indicated that large market participants, often referred to as whales, holding at least a million XRP tokens, are still increasing. This suggests that the holder confidence is still solid amid the so-called ‘smart money.’

More specifically, the number of such large wallets has risen by 32 in the past three months, while the asset’s market cap has declined by nearly 30%. Simultaneously, Ripple’s other cryptocurrency, the stablecoin RLUSD, has become a meaningful institutional asset, with its market cap hitting $1.6 billion.

The report added that Ripple’s payments, custody, and tokenization rails continue to see growing interest from users and concluded that only XRP’s price appears to be really struggling now.

Source: CryptoPotato