According to a report from Whale Alert, nearly 18.81 million XRP, which is practically equivalent to $25.03 million, have been transferred from the platform of the world's largest crypto exchange to an unknown destination.
Such transfers often cause excitement in the community as, according to popular belief, large withdrawals from centralized exchanges are often initiated by whales to store their purchased tokens in noncustodial proprietary wallets. On the other hand, these movements are conversely perceived as the desire of a large player to sell its assets on a more liquid platform, such as Binance.
What can we say about the recipient? Whale Alert identifies the wallet as unknown. However, digging into the data from XRPL's Bithomb explorer, we see that this recipient address belongs to the exchange itself. Activated earlier this year, the wallet currently holds 30.818 million XRP, which at the current token price is equivalent to almost $41.91 million.
The same is confirmed by the XRPWallets account, which often explains certain XRP transfers and withdrawals. According to one XRP enthusiast, 18.81 million XRP were transferred from one black-and-yellow exchange wallet to another.
From all indications, it is likely that the exchange's movement of funds between its wallets is due to "internal housekeeping" and operational activities.
Whether we can expect more similar moves from Binance remains to be seen. Considering that the price of XRP and the token itself is the main topic in the crypto space right now, such events can have an impact on the short-term turbulence on the price chart. However, it is necessary to be vigilant and aware of what, where and when in order not to fall victim to market manipulation.