XRP rises above $1.50 as whales buy $2.2 billion

XRP rose above $1.50 on September 23, 2026, extending a week-long rally driven by heavy accumulation from large wallets and elevated trading activity on Binance, according to onchain data cited by analysts. Technical analyst Ali Martinez, citing Santiment data, said whale wallets added approximately 1.54 billion XRP, worth about $2.2 billion, over a 96-hour window ending September 19, 2026. The tracked cohort's combined holdings expanded from roughly 8.27 billion to about 9.81 billion XRP over that period. The buying coincided with an 8.22% price recovery that carried XRP from lows near $1.24 back above $1.40. At the time of writing, XRP traded around $1.53, up more than 4% in 24 hours and about 9.5% over seven days, according to CoinGecko. The token's Relative Strength Index had moved above 70, a level commonly associated with overbought conditions. XRP remains down about 45% from a year earlier and roughly 58% below its all-time high of $3.65 recorded in July 2025. Exchange data painted a more mixed picture. Onchain tracking from Arab Chain showed Binance's XRP reserves reached approximately 2.68 billion tokens, their highest level since June.