Something Just Changed Around XRP
For months, XRP couldn't do it.
It rallied.
It pulled back.
It tested resistance.
Then on September 22, XRP finally pushed through $1.60, reaching roughly $1.64 and trading at levels not seen since early February.
But forget the price for a second.
Because something else happened at almost exactly the same time.
Blockchain analytics data cited by CCN recorded:
1,917 transactions worth at least $100,000.
And:
3,647 newly created XRP wallets.
The whale-transaction count was reportedly the highest in approximately a month.
Put the three numbers together:
XRP: >$1.60
Large transactions: 1,917
New wallets: 3,647
That's enough to get anyone's attention.
But it leaves one enormous unanswered question.
Are Whales Buying?
This is where the headline becomes dangerous.
A transaction worth more than $100,000 tells us that a large amount of XRP moved.
It does not tell us why.
A whale could be buying.
A whale could be selling.
An exchange could be moving funds internally.
A custodian could be reorganizing wallets.
An institution could be settling something.
The blockchain records the movement.
It doesn't attach a note saying:
“Whale just bought the dip.”
Santiment's data therefore confirms elevated large-holder activity around XRP's breakout—but not whether those large transactions represent accumulation.
That's precisely what makes the next few days interesting.
3,647 New Wallets Changes the Story
The second number may be even more important.
During the rally, 3,647 new XRP Ledger wallets were created.
Again, there is an important distinction.
That does not mean 3,647 new people purchased XRP.
One individual can create multiple wallets.
An exchange or business can create addresses operationally.
Automated systems can create accounts.
But unlike a rally happening entirely among existing market participants, wallet creation suggests the network itself was seeing fresh account activity alongside the price move.
So XRP didn't simply cross $1.60 while everyone sat still.
Price moved.
Large transfers increased.
New addresses appeared.
Those three things happened together.
And XRP Just Reclaimed $100 Billion
There's another psychological milestone.
Today's reporting shows XRP's market capitalization has climbed back above approximately $100 billion as the token returned to the $1.60 region.
That doesn't fundamentally change XRP.
A $99.9 billion asset and a $100.1 billion asset are economically almost identical.
But psychologically?
$100 billion matters.
It places XRP back into twelve-figure territory at the same moment network activity is accelerating.
And that makes this breakout much harder for the market to ignore.
But Here's What Makes This Rally Different
There are major XRP Ledger developments sitting directly behind it.
Batch V1.1 remains on track for conditional activation on September 29, provided validator support remains above the required 80% threshold.
As of the latest reporting, 30 of 35 validators were supporting the amendment.
Batch would allow between two and eight XRPL transactions to be grouped together.
Its all-or-nothing mode could enable both sides of a transaction to execute together—or neither executes.
That is particularly interesting for tokenized assets and delivery-versus-payment settlement.
RippleX has said asset managers and commercial projects are already preparing around the feature, although the firms and expected volumes have not yet been publicly identified.
So while XRP is breaking $1.60, XRPL itself is approaching one of its most important upgrades of 2026.
Then Comes October 5
There's another countdown.
PermissionDelegationV1_1 could activate around October 5 if validator support remains above the required threshold.
This feature addresses a completely different institutional problem.
Instead of handing another account full control, an XRPL account could delegate only specific permissions.
Think:
Master account retains control.
Operations account gets limited authority.
Compliance account gets different authority.
That's the kind of separation traditional financial institutions already expect.
So XRP's breakout is happening with two potentially significant XRPL protocol developments approaching within days of each other.
That doesn't prove the upgrades caused the rally.
But the timing makes the next two weeks unusually important for the ecosystem.
Now $1.60 Becomes the Test
Breaking a resistance level is one thing.
Holding it is another.
XRP reached roughly $1.64 during the latest move.
Now traders need to see whether $1.60 transforms from resistance into support.
If XRP immediately falls back below the level, the move could become another failed breakout.
If it remains above $1.60 while large-transfer activity and network growth stay elevated, the market structure starts looking considerably more interesting.
That's why the next signal isn't necessarily:
“Can XRP hit $2?”
It's:
“CAN XRP KEEP $1.60?” The Whale Number Needs Watching Too
The same applies to those 1,917 large transactions.
One spike is interesting.
Sustained elevated activity would be much more significant.
If high-value transfers remain elevated while XRP holds higher prices, that would show large participants continue to be active after the initial breakout.
If activity collapses immediately, the spike may have simply reflected positioning around the move itself.
The next few sessions should help separate those possibilities.
Don't Turn This Into a $10 Headline Yet
This is where XRP reporting often goes wrong.
XRP breaks resistance.
Whale activity spikes.
And suddenly:
“XRP TO $5.”
“XRP TO $10.”
“WHALES ARE ACCUMULATING.”
Today's data doesn't establish any of those claims.
What we actually know is already interesting enough:
XRP broke $1.60.
Large-value transfers reached a one-month high.
Thousands of new wallets appeared.
XRP's market capitalization returned to approximately $100 billion.
And two major XRPL amendments are approaching potential activation.
No $10 prediction is required.
Final Take
XRP has finally done something it hasn't managed sustainably for months:
break through $1.60.
But today's biggest story isn't the number on the chart.
It's what happened around it.
1,917 transactions of at least $100,000.
3,647 newly created wallets.
A return to roughly $100 billion in market capitalization.
None of this proves whales are accumulating.
None of it guarantees XRP continues higher.
And new wallets should never be confused with new individual investors.
But this breakout arrived with something traders always want to see:
activity.
Now XRP has to prove it can hold the level.
Because after months of waiting, the question has suddenly changed from:
“When will XRP break $1.60?”
to:
“WHO JUST MOVED WHEN IT DID?”
Published by Banx Network. This article is part of the Banx decentralized media programme, powered by the BXE token on the XRP Ledger.
