ETH and DOGE Whales Buy Big, XRP Steals the Show: Bits Recap September 19

TL;DR

• Large ETH investors spent almost $4 billion to increase their holdings in the past three days.
• DOGE whales also went on a buying spree, albeit scooping up a more modest amount of tokens.
• The first spot XRP ETF in the USA had a glamorous debut. However, the asset’s price is in the red on a daily scale.

ETH Whales on the Move

Last weekend, the second-largest cryptocurrency spiked to almost $4,800, perhaps in anticipation of the Fed’s decision to lower the interest rates in the United States. The start of the business week offered a correction below $4,500, but after the central bank slashed the benchmark, ETH soared above $4,600 and eventually consolidated at the current $4,500. 

The recent actions of the large investors support the theory that another major rally might be incoming. The popular X user Ali Martinez revealed that whales accumulated 820,000 ETH (worth approximately $3.8 billion) over the past 72 hours. 

Following the latest accumulation, this group of investors now collectively holds 31 million coins, or a quarter of the asset’s circulating supply. Massive purchases of that type leave fewer tokens available on the open market, which could be a precursor to a price rally (assuming demand doesn’t diminish). They may also encourage retail investors to distribute fresh capital into the ecosystem, thereby reinforcing the bullish narrative.

Meanwhile, the whales’ unrealized profits recently reached almost $45 billion, or a level last seen at the end of 2021. 

What’s Going on With DOGE?

Dogecoin whales also increased their holdings, purchasing 158 million coins for nearly $45 million. Those investors holding between one million and ten million coins now possess a total stash of over 11 billion DOGE. 

Ali Martinez, who disclosed about the effort, recently predicted that breaking $0.29 could send the price of the meme coin “flying” to $0.36 and even $0.45. As of this writing, DOGE is worth around $0.27, representing a 28% increase on a monthly scale. 

The meme coin’s recent positive performance can be attributed to the hype surrounding the launch of the first spot DOGE ETF in the United States. The REX-Osprey product saw the light of day yesterday (September 18) under the ticker DOJE and had a successful debut, generating trading volume of around $17 million (top 5 for this year out of 710 launches).

Ripple and XRP in the Spotlight

Besides introducing a spot DOGE ETF, REX-Osprey launched the same product with XRP as the underlying token. Its trading volume in the past 24 hours reached almost $38 million, or the best performance for such an investment vehicle on its first day this year. 

XRP, which climbed above $3.15 in the days leading up to the ETF launch, slipped afterward – a move that could be interpreted as a classic “sell-the-news” event. Currently, it trades at around $3.03, or a 2% decline on a 24-hour scale.

It is important to note that REX-Osprey’s DOGE and XRP exchange-traded funds slightly differ from standard spot ETFs. If you are curious to find out the differences, please read our article here.

The company behind XRP also made the headlines thanks to its prestigious collaboration with the global investment company Franklin Templeton (which has over $1.6 trillion in assets under management) and the leading bank in Singapore, DBS Bank.

According to the terms of the agreement, the financial institution will list Franklin Templeton’s tokenized dollar money market fund, sgBENJI, and Ripple’s stablecoin, RLUSD. 

“With this setup, eligible DBS clients can trade RLUSD for sgBENJI tokens, enabling them to rebalance their portfolios into a relatively stable asset 24/7 and within minutes, while earning yield during periods of volatility,” the official announcement reads.