XRPs The price has fallen about 4% this month, starting the new year on a negative note. Still, on-chain data shows a positive trend underneath.
The number of “millionaire” wallets, or those holding at least 1 million XRP, has increased for the first time since September 2025, according to data source Santiment.
Their numbers rose by 42 this month to 2,016, ending a four-month decline. XRP is the payments-focused cryptocurrency used by fintech company Ripple to facilitate cross-border transactions.
“A net of +42 wallets with at least 1M XRP have returned to the ledger, an encouraging sign for the long term,” said Santiment on X.
The good news for the XRP bulls does not end there. The US-listed spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) linked to XRP have recorded a net inflow of $91.72 million this month. Those funds collected $666 million and $499 million in investor money in November and December, respectively, according to data source SoSoValue.
This trend is in stark contrast to the decline in demand for bitcoin ETFs, which processed $278 million worth of redemptions this month, after more than $4 billion in outflows in the last two months of 2025.
Still, XRP’s price remains in a broad downtrend as seen in the chart below. The cryptocurrency last traded at $1.88, down 1.7% on a 24-hour basis.
The token has failed to recapture its 50-day moving average this month, with rallies repeatedly fading near the $2 handle. This suggests that larger holders may be positioning themselves for a longer thesis rather than chasing near-term momentum.
This divergence—increasing balances of large holders and steady ETF inflows along with weak price action—suggests quiet accumulation rather than speculative froth. Historically, similar setups in XRP have been preceded by periods of consolidation before sharper moves, although the timing has varied widely.
So far, XRP appears to be caught between long-term positioning and short-term risk aversion. Without a broader increase in crypto market momentum, particularly in bitcoin and ether, the token may struggle to convert improving fundamentals into sustained upside.
