The recent surge in XRP Ledger (XRPL) payments has caught the attention of the broader cryptocurrency market, raising questions about what could be fueling this massive growth. The next milestone comes later XRP has seen whale accumulation again despite increasing price volatility.

The XRP ledger is seeing a mysterious spike in payments

Data from the leading XRP blockchain explorer, XRPScan, can be seen that on May 19 number of XRP payments from one account to another, there were approximately 766,051. However, over the next few days, the number of payments skyrocketed, exceeding 1.22 million on May 22, an raise in the number of users by over 300,000.

Before this surge, the number of account-to-account payments had consistently hovered between 700,000 and 800,000, making the recent raise somewhat unnatural. Interestingly, XRP ledger payment size there was only a slight change over the same period. On May 19, volume was approximately 434.9 million, reaching 486.2 million on May 22, reflecting a slight raise of just over 51 million, which barely reflects dramatic raise in the number of user accounts.

Given the recent drop in the price of XRP and prolonged sideways movementan unexpected raise in the number of users in the ledger is suspicious. This begs the question of where these users came from and, more importantly, why they came when they did market enthusiasm seems subdued. Typically, when the number of cryptocurrency users increases as the price falls, it suggests two things: either true accumulation by XRP holders, or coordinated wallet activity.

It is worth noting that Nepetia, an XRP supporter who has also noticed the unusual raise in payments, shared comments on the subject. In X’s post from May 24, she he stated that even as the market continues to retreat, the number and volume of XRP payments continues to grow, indicating underlying strength.

Nepetia said whales too has accumulated over 71 million XRP in just seven days, while Spot XRP ETFs continue to grow record positive proceeds. In this context, she noted that these recent events are essential market signals suggesting that the XRP price may be preparing for a piercing move.

XRP Whales Pull Back From Accumulation

XRP Whales has been actively purchasing tokens over the past few months. However, the latest report from crypto analyst Ali Martinez discovers that over the past nine days, whale activity on the XRP Ledger has dropped from 157 vast transactions worth over $1 million to just 67 as of May 23. He noted that this gap means a decline in whale activity of more than 57.3%.

Interpreting these moves, Martinez explained that a decline in large-scale transaction volume by this amount suggests that the market may be entering main compression phase. He noted that the whales appear to have withdrawn from accumulation, which has allowed XRP’s current price range to stabilize between $1.3 and $1.4. He said this change naturally reduces immediate volatility and allows order books to mature.

Featured image from Getty Images, chart from Tradingview.com