XRP Stuck at $1 Despite Record Activity and Vanishing Whale Selling Pressure

Woofun AI reports that XRP remains anchored at $1, presenting a stark divergence between robust on-chain metrics and stagnant price discovery on the XRPL. While network activity has reached historic highs and whale selling pressure has evaporated, the asset fails to break out, signaling a fundamental misalignment between usage and valuation.

The surge in user engagement is quantifiable and significant. During a 24-hour period this week, the network logged 49,929 active addresses, marking the highest level recorded in more than two months. This figure sits approximately 3% above the 48,453 active addresses observed when XRP traded above $1.54 in May.

However, historical volatility underscores the fragility of such metrics; daily active addresses plummeted to 25,350 by July 10, 2026, representing the second-lowest reading of the year, before gradually recovering over the subsequent month.

Beyond raw address counts, participation in stablecoins and real-world assets (RWA) has expanded markedly. Data from RWA.xyz indicates that stablecoin holders on XRPL climbed 37% over the past month, rising from roughly 60,000 to about 82,100.

Concurrently, stablecoin transfer volume increased by 8.4% during the same timeframe, reaching $4.61 billion. As the network enters August, it boasts higher counts of active addresses, stablecoin holders, and RWA holders, yet the economic turnover accompanying this participation remains inconsistent.

Consequently, development efforts on the XRPL have pivoted toward enhancing liquidity, decentralized trading, consumer applications, stablecoins, and tokenized assets. These initiatives aim to provide users with compelling reasons to remain active on-chain. The current August rebound serves as a critical test for these strategies. Although network participation has surpassed levels seen during the May rally, sustaining this growth requires the activity to generate more persistent liquidity and capital, particularly as XRP trades back around $1.

A more critical variable is the collapse in whale selling pressure. The three-month average of whale inflows to Binance has fallen to about $61 million, its lowest level since 2021, according to CryptoQuant contributor Darkfost. For context, this measure stood near $456 million in January 2025 and $355 million in October 2025. Current whale inflows are therefore six to eight times below those earlier levels, drastically reducing the supply of XRP large holders move within reach of Binance's spot market. Despite this, net flows remain positive at about $18.8 million, indicating that whale inflows still exceed outflows, but the broader reduction in deposits has removed a substantial source of potential exchange-side supply while XRP trades around $1.

Derivatives positioning has moved in the opposite direction, increasing significantly during the same period. Bybit's 30-day change in XRP open interest reached 54 million XRP on Aug. 12, nearly matching the 54.5 million increase recorded on May 21. Binance added another 29.5 million XRP over the latest 30-day period, bringing the combined increase across the two exchanges to about 83.5 million XRP. The distribution of this growth has shifted; Binance recorded a 70.4 million XRP increase on June 6, whereas Bybit now accounts for the larger share of the latest build-up. Because the measure is denominated in XRP, the increase reflects growth in coin-denominated open interest rather than an expansion driven by a higher dollar price. These positions include both longs and shorts, leaving the directional bias of the new exposure unresolved.

Woofun AI data shows that the pace of new institutional capital entering the market has declined significantly for three consecutive months, mirroring XRP's price retreat. June inflows were roughly 55% below May's total, while July fell another 54%. August's intake of $3.27 million is already about 88% below July's full-month figure, despite half of the month remaining. This slowdown is occurring at the margin, where the amount of fresh capital arriving each month has dropped sharply, providing the missing link between XRP's strong underlying indicators and its weak price performance.

The disconnect suggests that network participation alone is insufficient to drive valuation without corresponding financial support. A stronger return of spot capital would meet a market characterized by robust network participation and lighter exchange-side pressure. This convergence could generate the demand necessary to sustain a recovery, resolving the current paradox where high utility fails to translate into price appreciation.