XRP Whale Activity Surges 280% but Price Remains Around $1: What's Going On?

XRP is drawing renewed whale interest as analysts watch a major resistance level that could determine the next move.Whale Activity Explodes—Will Price Follow?Crypto chart analyst Ali Martinez said on Tuesday on X that whale activity on the XRP Ledger has "exploded" over the past 24 hours.Transactions worth more than $1 million surged 280% to more than 38 transactions, but despite the increase in large-holder activity, Martinez remains cautious about XRP’s technical structure.He sees downside potentially extending toward $0.70, while a break above $1.06 could unlock significantly more upside.XRP still needs to clear what the analyst described as "huge resistance" before the outlook turns decisively bullish.The analyst also highlighted XRP’s steep drawdown, noting that the altcoin trades roughly 73% below its all-time high.XRP’s Role as Bridge AssetXRP Ledger validator Vet on Sunday highlighted XRP’s built-in role as a bridge asset on the network’s decentralized exchange.The XRP Ledger can automatically route trades through XRP when doing so improves trade execution. Vet said only 0.16% of DEX trades over the past 72 hours currently use this functionality, leaving considerable room for adoption if usage eventually reaches double-digit percentages.He argued that XRPL’s protocol-native DEX can aggregate liquidity and automatically bridge long-tail assets more efficiently than fragmented smart-contract-based exchanges.Ripple’s partnership with South Korea’s Jeonbuk Bank adds another institutional use case around the broader XRP ecosystem, although Ripple Payments adoption does not necessarily translate directly into XRP usage or demand.Image: Shutterstock