Large XRP▲$1.13 holders have continued to amass even during the prolonged downturn; on-chain data has so far failed to see any momentum from this buying.
The average spot orders on exchanges stayed in CryptoQuant’s “big whale” price range for 2026, even though XRP price had gone from around $2.40 at the beginning of the year to a $1.00 to $1.20 range.
Despite the still-growing accumulation, the broad market participation has diminished. According to crypto analytics provider CryptoQuant, the 90-day taker cumulative volume delta, which displays which side (the buyers’ or sellers’) is pushing the market more aggressively, has been approaching the neutral point after a clear buyers’ dominance earlier this year.
This basically means that the big money players are absorbing most of the supply, but that demand doesn’t appear to be strong enough to cement the breakout. Analysts have instead identified the current activity as a long-term consolidation rather than a breakout or a new bullish trend.
However, with ETH▲$1,761.17 price back down at around $1,900, it is still not reaching its realized price of ~$2,450, meaning most of its supply is trading at an unrealized loss, a characteristic of long-term market capitulation, indicating that most holders did not have a profit at the peak of their holdings.
By comparison, Bitcoin market price was around 17% above its estimated realized price of $52,900, and XRP was above the estimated realized price of $0.75.
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On-chain data has also revealed that Ethereum distribution across its largest wallets is changing. The wallets with between 10K and 100K ETH have been steadily amassing ETH, from 14 million ETH in mid-2025 to nearly 19.6 million ETH, a new all-time high.
In the meantime, addresses with over 100,000 ETH started to recover from their historical lows of 2025 (around 4.6 million ETH in May 2026), whereas addresses with 1,000 to 10,000 ETH started to considerably reduce their holdings earlier in the year.
Bitcoin whales also resumed their accumulative behavior. Excluding exchange and mining-pool addresses, the balance of bitcoin whales rose from 2.87 million BTC▲$62,630.00 at the end of 2025 to 3.06 million BTC. Most accumulation happened while Bitcoin price traded below $60,000, but overall whale balances are still lower than they were at the height of the previous bull market.
Read More: XRP Price Explosion Ahead? Analyst Says the Next Major Repricing Could Start Within Months
CryptoQuant has identified that Ethereum has thus far seen capitulation patterns in its history and has the closest correlation with them among all assets because it is still below its aggregate cost basis. There is still room for further downside before a market bottom is confirmed, the report said.
