Whale Activity and Market Reaction
XRP whales have resumed significant activity, selling approximately 500,000 XRP coins within a 48-hour period. This sell-off occurred amidst a broader market downturn that saw substantial liquidations across major cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and Ethereum. Despite the large volume of XRP moved by these major players, the coin is currently experiencing an uptrend, which has been interpreted as bullish XRP news.
Onchain analyst Ali Martinez highlighted this whale sell-off in a recent X post. According to his findings, the 500,000 XRP coins sold are valued at approximately $1.15 million, based on a price of $2.3 per XRP at the time of reporting. Typically, whales tend to increase their holdings when prices rise and divest when prices fall. This particular sell-off followed a recent market slump where the XRP price dipped as low as $2.1 on Friday, November 11, 2025.
Analysts like EGRAG CRYPTO had previously suggested that the price patterns observed reflected the Smart Money Concept (SMC), a model indicating how institutional traders might use liquidity to execute large orders before a market breakout. The subsequent price turnaround suggests this prediction may be materializing. As of this writing, XRP is trading at $2.3, marking a 5.9% increase over the preceding 24 hours. XRP's growing integration into global payments and institutional settlements has positioned it as a significant player in the market.
Impact of XRP Daily Volume
Contrary to expectations that a whale sell-off might trigger pessimistic sentiment among retail XRP traders, the opposite has occurred. Retail investors have demonstrated continued commitment to XRP, evidenced by a surge in trading volume. Over the past 24 hours, XRP's trading volume has increased by 14.2%, reaching $5.8 billion. A rising trading volume generally signifies increased investor willingness to accumulate an asset.
The significant liquidity injection from large investors contributed to this 14.2% jump in XRP trading volume. These big investors moved approximately $1.12 million worth of XRP to exchanges, leading to a substantial increase in trading activity.
XRPL Smart Contract Feature Goes Live on AlphaNet
In another development contributing to positive XRP news, a new smart contract feature for the XRP Ledger (XRPL) has become available for developers to explore and test on AlphaNet. This means developers can now write and test code that runs directly on the XRP Layer-1 blockchain. The implementation is described as being similar to Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) contracts but leverages the XRP Ledger's efficient and cost-effective system.
The introduction of smart contracts on XRPL enables developers to build applications for various use cases, including payments, trading, and Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs). A key characteristic of the XRPL smart contract is its permissionless deployment, meaning no UNL approval is necessary, differentiating it from traditional approaches. Developers have the flexibility to write contracts in multiple programming languages, which are then compiled into WebAssembly (WASM).
Further enhancing its functionality, the "instructions" for these contracts are stored on the ledger, allowing applications to read them. Contracts can also emit alerts when specific events occur, such as a transfer. The architectural model for these smart contracts follows a clear sequence: Deploy, Call, and Interact, followed by Monitor. Deployment involves using the ContractCreate function to publish WASM bytecode to a pseudo-account. Contract functions are then triggered via ContractCall transactions, and contracts can interact with native XRPL features by emitting XRPL transactions.