The Crypto Basic

Recently released Jeffrey Epstein files suggest that the convicted American financier had early informants monitoring Ripple and XRP. 

The U.S. Department of Justice’s disclosure of the Epstein files has reignited debate within the XRP community over whether Epstein tracked Ripple and the XRP from their earliest stages.

Key Points 

• The document suggested Epstein had informants tracking Ripple from its early stages.
• Historical timelines point to Stellar as the project under close monitoring.
• The Epstein files also exposed emails from Blockstream co-founder Austin Hill criticizing both Ripple and Stellar.
• Ripple CTO Emeritus David Schwartz says Hill views supporters of XRP and XLM as enemies of the broader crypto ecosystem.

‘Epstein Monitored Ripple and XRP From Early Days’

This speculation emerged after the DOJ published roughly 3.5 million pages of Epstein-related documents. In one of the files, an unidentified individual informed Epstein that American programmer and entrepreneur Jed McCaleb was working on a “secret Bitcoin project” before leaving the Mt. Gox crypto exchange.

Following this revelation, some XRP community members interpreted the statement as evidence that Epstein had someone monitoring Ripple and the XRP early on. 

In particular, popular XRP commentator Jungle asserted that the email indicated direct surveillance of Ripple and XRP from the project’s formative days. 

Historical Timeline Points to Stellar, Not Ripple or XRP 

However, a counter-view rooted in historical timelines challenges this interpretation. According to this perspective, the “secret Bitcoin project” likely refers to another blockchain initiative, most plausibly Stellar, rather than Ripple or XRP. Crypto analyst Leonidas Hadjiloizou advanced this argument by examining both the timing of the email and the launch history of the relevant projects. 

Specifically, the document shows that the message about McCaleb’s alleged secret Bitcoin project was sent to Epstein on July 1, 2014. By contrast, McCaleb co-founded Ripple with Chris Larsen in 2012 under the name OpenCoin and also helped launch the XRP that same year.

Notably, Leonidas noted that McCaleb exited Ripple in 2013 and went on to co-found Stellar the following year, positioning it as a fintech platform he believed would better serve Bitcoin and its users. 

Given these timelines, Leonidas concluded that the “secret Bitcoin project” mentioned in the email is Stellar — rather than Ripple or XRP.

Blockstream Founder Considers XRP Supporters Enemy 

Meanwhile, the Epstein files have fueled fresh controversy involving Ripple and Stellar. In a viral excerpt, Blockstream co-founder Austin Hill urged Jeffrey Epstein and Joichi Ito to reduce or halt financial support for McCaleb–founded projects, specifically Ripple and Stellar. 

In the email, Hill argued that both companies harm the broader crypto ecosystem and claimed that investors backing them damage the industry’s image. He also proposed a call to discuss possible next steps to “deal” with the issue.

In response, Ripple CTO Emeritus David Schwartz said Hill appeared to view supporters of XRP or XLM as enemies of the ecosystem. He added that this hostility may reflect a much deeper rift and warned that such attitudes ultimately harm the entire crypto industry.  

The sad part is, we really are all in this together and this kind of attitude hurts everyone in the space.

— David 'JoelKatz' Schwartz (@JoelKatz) January 31, 2026

Scott Melker, the Wolf of All Streets, has suggested that XRP currently presents the best risk/reward ratio investors could get on any asset.

Notably, after falling from its July 2025 high of $3.66, XRP now trades around a long-term support zone that has historically determined whether the price resumes a broader uptrend or enters a deeper correction. 

Currently changing hands at the $1.6 zone, XRP now sits around the mid-point of its November 2024 breakout area with lower downside risk and higher upside potential if buyers defend support. 

Key Points

• XRP trades in the $1.6 region, down from its July 2025 peak of $3.66, after months of sustained bearish pressure.
• The current support zone within the $1.55 to $1.60 range aligns with the mid-point of XRP’s November 2024 breakout, which began from the $0.50 to $0.6 range.
• Scott Melker believes that, at the current position, XRP presents the best risk/reward situation for any asset.
• Investors could easily exit the market with a small loss if a breakdown below the current support area plays out.
• If support holds, XRP could rebound toward resistance at $2.00, with a longer-term target near the $3.66 peak.

The Rally That Determined XRP’s Current Structure

Data from Scott Melker’s chart confirms that XRP’s current structure started forming in early November 2024, when the price finally broke out of a long consolidation. 

Specifically, for most of 2023 and 2024, XRP moved sideways between $0.45 and $0.70. However, the situation improved when prices surged from the $0.5 region in November 2024 to reclaim $2.00 the next month.

From December 2024 through March 2025, XRP traded in a range between $2.00 and $3.20 as the market searched for fair value. The momentum pushed XRP to the $3.66 peak in July 2025. However, repeated failures above $3.50 confirmed demand was weakening, leading to the current downturn. Now, XRP trades around $1.6.

Why the $1.60 Level Matters

Melker’s chart identifies the $1.55 to $1.60 zone as XRP’s most important support on the weekly chart. This level sits at the mid-point of the November 2024 breakout and previously acted as resistance before turning into support. After months of steady selling, the price has now returned to this same area.

Should XRP hold this zone, it will preserve the broader bullish structure. If it breaks, the chart shows very little support below. The next potential downside areas sit around $1.30 to $1.35, followed by psychological support at the $1.00 to $1.10 area.

Why Melker Sees a Strong Risk/Reward Setup

Despite the current weakness in the market, Melker believes this position presents a good risk/reward ratio. “For traders, this is about the best risk/reward you get on an asset,” the analyst said.

According to him, any market participant could easily cut losses once the current support weakens without giving up too much. Specifically, with XRP trading at $1.60, traders can manage risk tightly by exiting below $1.45 to $1.50 if support fails. This limited downside presents an attractive setup if buyers step in.

On the upside, XRP could rebound toward $2.00 as the first resistance. A stronger recovery would then face selling pressure near $2.50 to $2.60, followed by heavier resistance at $3.00. Notably, a full trend reversal could eventually open the path back to the $3.66 high. 

XRP Remains Bullish Long Term

Meanwhile, EGRAG Crypto believes XRP remains bullish in the long term. In his recent analysis, he called attention to the 33-period exponential moving average and a central trend line that both converge around $1.60 to $1.61. 

When XRP briefly dipped to about $1.50, reclaimed the level, and closed the month of January above $1.60, it essentially swept liquidity near $1.64. After this, the asset opened in February at around $1.66.

Based on past cycles, EGRAG shared two possible paths. One involves a short-term bounce followed by another liquidity sweep before a larger move higher. The other mirrors previous cycle gains of 340% in 2021 and 1,600% in 2017, possibly leading to long-term projections around $7 and $27.

Amid the historic price action in precious metals like gold this week, market watchers are drawing interesting comparisons with XRP.

This week, gold hit an all-time high of $5,600, pushing its market cap to $38.93 trillion. Silver also followed in gold’s footsteps, reaching a market cap of $6.79 trillion. Interestingly, while precious metals rallied, the crypto market remained in the red.

Meanwhile, what attracted attention was the pace at which these precious metals accumulated market value, adding multiples of the total market caps of Bitcoin and XRP within a short period.

Key Points

• Gold added $2.2T in market cap in one day, nearly 20x XRP’s entire valuation.

• Analysts say gold’s massive gains reflect market depth, not faster capital inflows.

• Bitcoin and XRP remain under pressure as gold and silver enter bearish trends.

• Some analysts believe crypto’s major breakout may follow metals’ market peak.

Gold Soars in Multiples of Bitcoin and XRP Market Caps

In a post on X, Quinten François, host of CoinCompass, noted that gold added $2.2 trillion to its market cap in just one day.

Highlighting the impressive move, François pointed out that Bitcoin’s market cap stood at about $1.78 trillion. In other words, gold added more than Bitcoin’s entire valuation in a single day.

Other financial commentators extended the comparison to XRP, noting that gold added more than 20 times XRP’s entire market cap in under 24 hours. This comparison holds, considering XRP’s market cap stands at roughly $103 billion as of today.

Explaining Gold’s Market Expansion

Meanwhile, some commentators attempted to explain how gold was able to add $2.2 trillion to its market cap in a single day. Replying to François’ post, ResilientTrading noted that while a $2.2 trillion gain sounds extreme, gold is a deep, highly mature market where small percentage moves translate into massive nominal figures.

He added that crypto assets like Bitcoin and XRP, by contrast, are much younger and thinner markets. They don’t require trillions of dollars in inflows to move, which also means they can react far more quickly. François expressed full agreement with this perspective.

100%

— Quinten | 048.eth (@QuintenFrancois) January 28, 2026

Bitcoin and XRP Will Have Their Time

Meanwhile, another commenter pointed out that Bitcoin will soon have its moment, and its market cap gains could be massive. François agreed, noting that the rally for crypto assets may unfold after gold and silver top out.

As of today, however, gold and silver are showing bearish trends. Gold has dipped 8.35% over the past 24 hours, wiping out about $5 trillion from its market cap. It is now trading at $4,908 with a valuation of $34.12 trillion.

Silver has seen an even more dramatic decline, crashing 25.5% over the past day to trade at $85 after peaking at $121 just two days ago. Its market cap now stands at $4.8 trillion.

Meanwhile, the crypto market has not been immune to the downturn in traditional markets. XRP’s price has dropped to $1.69 today, marking a new low for 2026. Bitcoin is hovering around $83,000 after briefly touching $81,000 on Friday.

XRP’s “Silver Moment” Coming?

Earlier this week, as gold and silver hit record highs while crypto consolidated, XRP commentator Coach JV argued that the divergence will not last.

Coach JV said Bitcoin and XRP are experiencing the same type of price suppression long seen in precious metals markets. According to him, when the breakout comes, prices will reprice suddenly, not gradually.

Notably, before the latest dip, gold posted yearly gains of about 125%, while silver surged even higher with gains of roughly 290%.

If XRP were to mirror silver’s gains, its price could rise toward $6.90 from the current $1.69. Meanwhile, if Bitcoin were to follow gold’s move, its price could reach $186,367 from around $83,000.

However, these are purely mathematical estimates. The potential breakout for crypto assets could be much higher, or Bitcoin and XRP could face an even deeper bear phase before any major breakout occurs.

Addresses withdrawing XRP from the Upbit exchange recently spiked to a new all-time high, indicating that investors are increasingly pulling their assets from exchanges.

This recent pattern comes despite XRP’s latest price struggles, as it relinquishes the $1.8 and support level amid a broader market risk-off environment. For context, XRP has continued to witness declines since Jan. 14, when it recovered to $2.2 and met a roadblock. Currently trading for $1.7, XRP is down 22.7% from the $2.2 high.

While the downturn has persisted, South Korean investors remain unfazed, as evidenced by their increased exchange withdrawals. Specifically, exchange withdrawing addresses on Upbit, Korea’s largest exchange, recently spiked to 3,200, the highest recorded figure.

Key Points

• The XRP price has continued to struggle since the Jan. 14 high of $2.2, currently down 22.7% to $1.7.
• Despite these struggles, South Korean investors remain unfazed, continuously withdrawing their tokens to cold wallets.
• Recently, exchange withdrawing addresses on Upbit, Korea’s largest exchange, spiked to a new all-time peak of 3,200.
• Investors typically withdraw their tokens from exchanges when they plan to HODL them for long, but this isn’t a definitive signal.

Upbit Exchange Withdrawing Addresses Hit 3,200

Kriptomessi, a pseudonymous market commentator, called the investing public’s attention to this trend in a recent post. Citing the bullish development, the analyst teased a possible “massive XRP move,” pointing to the potential impact of such withdrawals on the XRP price.

Notably, data from the accompanying CryptoQuant chart shows that exchange withdrawing addresses in Q4 2025 ranged between 1 and 53 daily amid the downtrend that dominated the market at the time. While withdrawing addresses observed occasional spikes, the daily peak during this period stood at 171.

However, in December, despite the downturn persisting, withdrawing addresses from Upbit saw rapid spikes. The first spike occurred on Dec. 15, 2025, hitting a high of 2,750. By Dec. 17, another spike resulted in a peak of 3,051, a new all-time high at the time.

While more spikes occurred in January 2026, they remained lower than the 3,051 peak until Jan. 30. Specifically, on this day, withdrawing addresses on Upbit hit a new all-time high of 3,200 despite XRP collapsing below the $1.8 support.

How Could This Impact XRP?

Kriptomessi called the recent trend a sign that “whales are stacking hard offline.” The market watcher believes XRP could react with a “massive” move. He charged investors to expect the unexpected.

Daily spikes in XRP withdrawals suggest that large holders and active traders continue to move tokens off the exchange despite the price struggles. Investors often withdraw assets to hold them in private wallets, which can point to long-term confidence and accumulation during the dip. 

Others may move funds to decentralized platforms for staking, liquidity pools, or arbitrage opportunities across exchanges. Whatever the reason, when fewer tokens sit on exchanges, immediate selling pressure can ease, which sometimes helps stabilize the price or set the stage for a rebound.

However, these withdrawals do not always signal bullish intent. Some traders move XRP to sell on other platforms with better liquidity or to manage risk during volatile periods. In addition, institutions may also reshuffle wallets for security or operational reasons without any plan to hold long-term. 

A newly-activated XRP whale address recently accumulated over $206 million worth of XRP within an hour.

While the wallet amassed the tokens across two transactions worth 60 million XRP each (about $103 million), an interesting twist involved the use of a central address to route the assets through four different transactions within an hour.

Notably, the accumulation spree follows the latest XRP price collapse, with the asset dropping to a new yearly low below the $1.8 level. Amid a 10% decline since Jan. 29, XRP now changes hands at $1.72, representing its lowest price over the past nine months (excluding the Oct. 10 crash). At this point, it remains unclear if the recent transactions represent part of a “buy-the-dip” campaign or a mere fund shuffle.

Key Points

• A new XRP whale address that was activated a month ago recently accumulated 120 million XRP worth $206 million at the time.
• The accumulation exercise occurred across two equal transactions, but the whale leveraged a central address to re-route the tokens from its source.
• The address used for re-routing was also activated a month ago and has persistently moved millions of XRP tokens to other wallets from the same source.
• Currently, the XRP whale has held onto the accumulated tokens, with an extra 35 million XRP, bringing its total balance to 185 million tokens.
• The latest accumulation campaign follows a recent wave of bearish pressure that has pushed XRP to its lowest level in nine months.

XRP Whale Gulps $206M Worth of XRP

On-chain data confirms that the transactions that set things in motion last night involved three unknown addresses, including rGM…Q9j, the XRP whale in question. Specifically, wallet address rJu…YXE received 60 million XRP worth $103 million at the time from the source rpx…ZY1 yesterday at 21:42 UTC. 

A few minutes after this transaction, rJu…YXE routed the 60 million XRP tokens to the whale address rGM…Q9j at 21:56 UTC. Nearly an hour later, rJu…YXE received another batch of 60 million tokens from the source rpx…ZY1. It again transferred these tokens to rGM…Q9j at 22:49 UTC.

Overall, rGM…Q9j gulped 120 million XRP tokens worth $206 million at the time in less than an hour. Currently, the XRP whale address holds 185 million XRP tokens. This includes the recent 120 million XRP, as well as 35 million leftover balance from earlier transfers it received from rJu…YXE last month and earlier this month.

Why the XRP Whale Movements?

With no tags on the addresses involved and no statements from any known entity, the reason behind the recent fund movements remains open for interpretation. Notably, the transfers may involve a whale or an institution shifting funds between wallets. Big holders regularly move assets for safety, easier access to liquidity, or internal tracking. 

However, The Crypto Basic has also reported on similar movements in the past, which actually involved a whale accumulation trend. Such an interpretation would be reasonable, considering whales often engage in quiet buying when the XRP price drops to new lows they find attractive. 

XRP Hits 9-Month Low

Notably, XRP currently trades at a 9-month low following the latest wave of bearish pressure. Specifically, the asset has dropped by more than 10% since Jan. 29, relinquishing the support at $1.8 and now changing hands around the lower ends of the $1.7 region. XRP trades for $1.72 at press time, a low it last saw in April 2025.

An XRP community member argues that long-term success will depend on measurable, everyday utility rather than narratives about a global reset. 

Recently, some pundits have claimed that a global financial reset is underway, suggesting XRP could benefit due to its utility in cross-border settlements.

However, prominent community figure WrathofKahneman dismisses the “global reset” narrative as a marketing phrase, while highlighting an important factor that could attract institutional clients. 

Key Points 

• XRP commentator WrathofKahneman dismisses the global reset narrative as another marketing phrase. 
• He suggests XRP’s long-term success depends on increased real-world usage, not speculative narratives. 
• XRP currently processes billions in daily transactions but remains far behind Bitcoin and Ethereum in volume. 
• Proponents expect XRP’s volume to rise sharply to a level where it becomes too big to ignore. 

Only Factor That Matters for XRP Success 

While dismissing the global reset narrative, WrathofKahneman said the only factor that truly matters for XRP is growing daily usefulness. His view reflects a broader community stance that sees the global reset narrative as a distraction from the fundamentals that shape XRP’s value proposition. 

According to this perspective, XRP does not require a sudden systemic shift to succeed. Rather, its relevance will grow organically as real-world adoption expands. As transaction volumes, integrations, and practical applications increase, measurable data will ultimately validate its importance. 

Numbers Companies Can’t Ignore 

According to WrathofKahneman, the numbers that companies cannot ignore refer specifically to sustained growth in daily XRP transaction volume and liquidity. Therefore, he says he anticipates a point at which XRP scales sufficiently to make it economically impractical for firms to ignore its use. 

Although XRP has not yet reached the expected scale, it continues to process billions of dollars in daily transactions. Despite the recent market downturn, XRP records about $3.87 billion in daily volume, which remains well below Bitcoin’s $52.79 billion and Ethereum’s $32.09 billion. 

Nonetheless, community members believe this figure could rise sharply as adoption expands, eventually making XRP too significant to overlook. 

Positive Milestones Yet to Drive XRP Price Growth

Meanwhile, WrathofKahneman’s remarks have sparked mixed reactions within the community. While some members agree with his perspective, others question XRP’s limited price movement despite several major milestones.

Critics highlight developments such as Ripple’s legal win against the SEC, improved regulatory clarity, ETF approvals, and stronger cooperation with U.S. authorities, arguing that these achievements have yet to translate into meaningful price gains. 

In response, WrathofKahneman maintains that this concern reinforces his core argument: milestones alone are not enough, as only increased usage and sustained price accrual matter for XRP.