XRP whales expanded their balances significantly during the final full week of September, while Ripple announced a new tokenization link involving BlackRock and VanEck funds. According to Santiment data cited by 36Crypto, large XRP wallets added roughly 430 million tokens between September 19 and September 24, lifting their combined holdings from 12.37 billion to 12.80 billion XRP. At the price levels used in the analysis, the increase was worth about $724 million. CryptoPotato separately cited analyst Ali Martinez, who said whales accumulated more than 470 million XRP over the same five-day period. The two totals differ, and the available figures do not explain the discrepancy or prove that every token was purchased on the spot market, since wallet transfers can also change measured holdings.
The accumulation coincided with a volatile stretch for XRP. The token advanced from around $1.25 toward a local peak near $1.58, briefly traded above $1.60 earlier in the week and reached approximately $1.62. It was later rejected near $1.65, fell below $1.50, and then rebounded to around $1.55 to $1.56 by Friday. Analysts view $1.60 as the key neckline of a potential inverse head-and-shoulders pattern. A sustained break above that level could strengthen a move toward $2.00, while failure to hold it could shift attention to moving averages around $1.34 to $1.37 and the broader $1.25 to $1.50 range.
On the institutional side, Ripple said it has worked with Securitize on a smart contract that allows holders of BlackRock's BUIDL and VanEck's VBILL tokenized short-term treasury funds to exchange their shares for Ripple's stablecoin, RLUSD. The integration creates an additional stablecoin off-ramp and is described as enabling 24/7 on-chain transfers while preserving exposure to on-chain yield and broader DeFi strategies. Jack McDonald, Ripple's SVP of stablecoins, said: “RLUSD is for institutional use, offering regulatory clarity, stability, and real utility. As adoption grows, partnerships with trusted platforms like Securitize are key to unlocking new liquidity and enterprise-grade use cases.” Securitize also said it plans to integrate with the XRP Ledger to expand access and bring new utility to its ecosystem.
Martinez remains bullish and said XRP has completed the right shoulder of a major inverse head-and-shoulders pattern on the daily chart, but needs to overcome the crucial resistance at $1.60 to aim at $2.00. The week prior, whales reportedly bought more than 1.5 billion XRP in 96 hours.
