Ripple (XRP) price has been hovering below $0.49 for the third consecutive week, despite increased investor interest in 2023.

Ripple (XRP) Coin

The ongoing Ripple lawsuit, which was expected to conclude in the first half of the year, seems to be a factor. In May, Ripple's CEO stated that a decision would be made within weeks, however, no verdict has been reached nearly two months later.

The ensuing uncertainty has led to the XRP price being trapped between $0.47 and $0.49 for almost three weeks straight. The appetite for risk among investors is showing signs of revival with BTC resuming its lateral movement.

XRP Coin Commentary

On-chain data showcases a behavior disparity between whales and individual investors. Amid the apparent price stagnation, a significant cluster of institutional investors took bullish positions in XRP this month. The Santiment graph below shows that whales holding between 1 million to 100 million XRP coins have added 170 million coins to their wallet balances since the beginning of July.

While XRP prices currently hover around $0.47, the whales' new investment is worth approximately $80 million. Under normal conditions, an inflow of funds of this magnitude over a 10-day period would be sufficient to trigger a significant price increase. An influx of $80 million is not negligible, particularly when volumes are drying up.

According to data compiled by Santiment, individual XRP investors are leaning towards selling, rendering the whales' efforts futile.

As shown below, the decrease in Daily Active Addresses has pulled down the total transaction volume recorded across the XRP Ledger Network. Since the beginning of July, the total number of users transacting on the XRP network has decreased by 50%. Despite the whales accumulating $80 million, the total XRP Transaction Volume also fell by 92% during the same period. Daily Active Addresses measure the activity level among individual network participants by counting the number of wallet addresses executing transactions.

In summary, while whales appear largely optimistic, on-chain data shows that individual investors are adopting a different stance. If this trend continues, the XRP price is likely to remain neutral in the coming days. The MVRV ratio, confirming this forecast, shows that after the price stagnated for 3 weeks, most XRP investors are currently in a 3% loss. Historical data suggests that many might even sell around $0.49. However, if the bulls overcome this resistance, XRP could rise towards $0.52 before experiencing a pullback.