Massive Whale Slaps XRP, ETH Price Short: What Do They Know?

A mysterious large crypto investor, popularly referred to as crypto whale, was spotted making million-dollar moves on Derivatives markets. Particularly, a $4.4 million USDC stablecoin deposit into HyperLiquid’s decentralized exchange (DEX) was made to open a highly-leveraged short position on Ripple (XRP) & Ethereum (ETH).

Brave Play On XRP Price Drop

Apparently, the crypto whale in question thinks these altcoins have topped out. According to on-chain data from blockchain intelligence platform OnChain Lens, the courageous Ethereum (ETH) short price position was multiplied 20 times, currently valued at nearly $19 million. ETH price would have to tack on a massive rally above $3K to liquidate it.

In contrast, the crypto whale was not so sure about Ripple (XRP) price entering such a harsh market correction. They placed an 8x-leveraged XRP short price position, worth $11 million at the time of this publication. For these short-selling plays to be wiped out, XRP price would need to hit $3.45, five cents above the all-time high hit over 7 years ago.

Did XRP & ETH Really Top Out?

Digging into the reasons behind this crypto whale’s pessimism about XRP & ETH’s price performance in the coming days, DailyCoin established that this whale move definitely resembles an ongoing trend. In the past 24 hours, short-selling XRP positions didn’t reach $1 million in liquidations, while XRP bulls got wiped out of $12.06 million, as per CoinGlass data.

Meanwhile, XRP price performance shows conflicting signs on a technical basis. Presently, most crypto whales are still topping up their Ripple coin balances. This is depicted in the positive Chaikin Money Flow (CMF), which has stood above zero since May 9, 2025.

However, the current price is trading at $2.46, below a crucial threshold that acted as key support during March’s rally to $2.88. Namely, this tight-range consolidation means large Ripple investors are awaiting the next moves from the political field, most notably the legislation for the RLUSD stablecoin and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s ETF evaluation.

On The Flipside

• There’s reason to believe the sentiment will change on May 19, 2025, when XRP Futures listing goes live on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME).

Why This Matters

Plays on future crypto prices have rocketed since both altcoins made legal breakthroughs, attracting institutional investor attention stock market compatibility.

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