A recent analysis claims that approximately 225 million XRP is available for sale across major cryptocurrency exchanges at prices up to $5, challenging some widespread perceptions about the actual liquid supply in the market. The report, announced by analyst Edo Farina, was based on an examination of 64 trading venues and 171 trading pairs.
Visible supply contrasts with wallet balances
Farina explained that, while roughly 22 billion XRP sits in exchange wallets tracked by his research, these balances do not indicate true sell-side liquidity. For example, Binance holds about 2.6 billion XRP, yet much of this total represents customer assets in storage, not tokens currently being offered for sale. This distinction underlines that wallet balances alone do not represent the amount available at current prices.
The significance of this finding lies in the ongoing debate within the XRP community regarding potential supply shocks. Many have pointed to large exchange wallet figures as evidence of immediate liquidity, but the analysis suggests that these metrics can be misleading.
Order book snapshot shows limited sell orders
With XRP trading near $1.31 during the study, Farina reported about 35 million XRP listed as sell orders within 2% above the market price on what he categorized as trusted exchanges. Meanwhile, buy orders within 2% below the price totaled roughly 44 million XRP. This revealed greater visible buying interest on these platforms at that particular price range, although the analyst cautioned that this snapshot does not capture the full dynamics of the market.
Across all exchanges reviewed, visible sell orders between the spot price and the $5 mark summed to approximately 225 million XRP. When focusing solely on the trusted exchange subset, the number was closer to 100 million XRP. Farina said that duplicate order books, inactive markets, and very distant orders outside ordinary trading ranges were filtered out of the analysis for clarity.
“An order book is like a picture, not a movie,” Farina noted, emphasizing that static data provides only a fleeting view of market conditions and cannot predict how buying pressure would impact prices over time.
Order books are subject to rapid changes as orders are placed, canceled, adjusted, or hidden. Therefore, conclusions about XRP price movement based solely on these figures should be made with caution. The underlying dataset and detailed methodology were not disclosed, adding further limits to reproducibility.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Visible sell orders ($1.31–$5) | 225 million XRP (all exchanges) |
| Sell orders on trusted exchanges | 100 million XRP |
| XRP in exchange wallets | 22 billion XRP |
| Sell orders within 2% above market | 35 million XRP |
| Buy orders within 2% below market | 44 million XRP |
Institutional demand and hypothetical scenarios
Farina’s YouTube analysis considered what might happen if an institution attempted to buy $1 billion worth of XRP, though he stressed that any real institutional actor would likely rely on over-the-counter (OTC) transactions rather than public order books to avoid slippage and adverse price effects. He mentioned BlackRock as an illustrative example rather than as an actual buyer.
The video also explored wallet movements linked to Arthur Britto, one of the co-creators of the XRP Ledger, including transfers to Bitstamp. Farina proposed a possible connection between these transfers and Ripple’s payment liquidity needs but made clear that wallet activity alone is not enough to determine true intent or subsequent actions once assets arrive at an exchange.
Market participants continue to monitor XRP transactions and exchange data for signs of changing liquidity and demand as interest in the cryptocurrency sector remains strong.
Mini dictionary: Arthur Britto – One of the three original founders and architects of the XRP Ledger, Britto played a key technical role in the early development of Ripple’s blockchain infrastructure.
Large institutional purchases, such as a hypothetical $1 billion buy, would likely utilize private liquidity channels. Public order books do not accurately reflect the market impact or supply dynamics for such transactions.
