Ripple Strengthens Stablecoin Push With This Major Acquisition

Key Insights

• Ripple acquires Rail for $200 million. Here are some key details about this acquisition that you should know.
• XRP trading volumes on Upbit reveal rising withdrawals after a short-term decline.
• Bullish sentiment around XRP is on the rise, with whales leading the pack.

Ripple has no doubt been aiming for a bigger share of the stablecoin market. The company has been on a buying spree with strategic acquisitions aimed at fueling its momentum in the stablecoin space.

Ripple revealed in one of its latest announcements that it has finalized the acquisition of Rail. The company revealed earlier this month that Rail was one of the acquisitions it was working on to expand its digital assets infrastructure.

The $200 billion acquisition of Rail puts Ripple in a strategic position to tap into robust growth opportunities in the B2B segment.

This is because Rail currently handles about 10% of all the stablecoin transactions in the B2B segment.

Ripple will be able to deploy fiat to stablecoin services with one API with ease, thanks to this acquisition.

This may allow the network to deploy its stablecoin services for businesses and enhance its footprint in real-world utility.

South Korean exchange sees surge in demand for XRP

Ripple’s native coin, XRP, has been experiencing significant sell pressure alongside most other top cryptocurrencies.  However, bullish sentiment has been making a comeback alongside demand.

Recent reports revealed that South Korean crypto exchanges have been contributing to the demand resurgence.

The Upbit exchange has been particularly known to hold a substantial amount of XRP, as well as XRP trading volumes.

Upbit recently registered a sizable uptick in the amount of XRP outflows or withdrawals. For context, Upbit withdrawals recently surged to levels last seen in 2023.

The withdrawals suggest that South Korean traders might be buying XRP at recently discounted prices and moving the funds to private wallets.

A move typically associated with mid-to-long term HODLing. Similar moves are also typically observed at or near the bottom of a downtrend.

Ripple News: Are whales accumulating XRP?

The XRP outflows on Upbit also were not an isolated observation.  Cumulative volume delta (CVD) revealed that whales dominated Ripple XRP trading volumes.

This is important because whales almost always attempt to front-run a price trend.

A recent CryptoQuant analysis highlighted the XRP spot taker CVD in favor of a taker buy dominance. In other words, recent market data signals higher buying momentum than sell pressure.

The shift to a demand environment for XRP reflected the current market observations. The cryptocurrency experienced overall positive demand from the whales cohort in the last 2 days.

Whales acquired $12.4 million in the spot market since 10 December, with the bulk of that demand coming from Coinbase. This means U.S traders have also adopted bullish sentiment for XRP.

Whales also executed over $97 million worth of long positions in the derivatives segment. While this aligned with spot demand, it was relatively low in the grand scheme of things.

This could be due to investor caution, considering the prevailing uncertainty in the market. Ripple XRP price barely attained any upside despite this latest demand wave.

The cryptocurrency has been hovering near the $2 level, which is a major historical support. XRP’s limited upside despite cooling sell pressure reflects the subdued outcome in the crypto market.

However, the surging demand on Upbit and from whales may indicate that bullish momentum might be building up for a move to the upside.