A $165.9 million XRP transaction involving 116,661,476 tokens initially triggered market alerts and speculation after being flagged by the on-chain tracking service Whale Alert on February 9, 2026. The transfer, which showed funds moving between two "unknown wallets," raised immediate concerns about potential large-scale private selling or market manipulation, especially given XRP's fragile price position near $1.41.
However, on-chain analysts quickly clarified the situation. The transaction was not a mysterious whale move but an internal transfer between subwallets of two major cryptocurrency exchanges, Kraken and Binance. Such transfers are typically conducted for routine operational purposes like liquidity rebalancing, operational batching, market maker logistics, or OTC settlement flows.
The timing of the transfer was notable as XRP's price was testing post-distribution support zones, having faded from summer 2025 highs into February 2026 lows. The session was marked down about 1.47%. In such a sensitive environment, any large wallet movement can spook traders, highlighting the market's propensity to react to on-chain data before full context is available.
Ultimately, the event underscored that the transfer had no direct impact on XRP's circulating supply or external market flows. It was characterized as standard "exchange plumbing" or a housekeeping operation, with the initial panic subsiding once the institutional nature of the move was understood.
