XRP's whale-retail spread has narrowed sharply across centralized exchanges, according to data from CryptoQuant. The metric fell from 64% on September 30 to 46.7% on October 8, a decline of 17.3 percentage points, or about 27% in just eight days.
The spread measures the relative difference between large-scale whale activity and retail participation in XRP exchange outflows. CryptoQuant noted that the move does not necessarily mean whales are selling. Instead, it suggests large holders have become largely dormant compared with retail traders, with outflows increasingly driven by smaller transactions.
The slowdown was particularly visible on Binance, where the whale-retail spread dropped from 68% to 54.9% over the same period, a 13.1 percentage-point reduction and a relative decline of 19.3%. The shift coincided with a broader market correction in early October that pushed XRP toward its lowest price levels in more than a month.
Analysts noted that reduced large-order participation leaves short-term price discovery more exposed to retail volumes. Market attention now turns to the mid-October update of CryptoQuant's weekly exchange flow data and spot volume reactions around resistance levels established in September, while the XRP Ledger's recent privacy and settlement feature developments remain part of the ecosystem's technical agenda.
