TL:DR:
Crypto markets experienced volatility at the end of the week, but major investors remain unperturbed as they continue to accumulate XRP and DOGE.
Will Whales Drive a Swift Rebound for XRP and DOGE?
The crypto market endured a tumultuous week, with Bitcoin initially surging past $102,000 before plummeting over $10,000 to a multi-week low within two days. Altcoins mirrored this trend, with DOGE approaching $0.4 at one point before dropping towards $0.31, marking a 22% retracement. XRP briefly rose above $2.5 on January 4 and $2.47 on January 7, but market-wide corrections pushed it down to $2.2 on January 9 before stabilizing around $2.33 in the past 24 hours.
Such volatility typically deters certain investors, particularly retail investors, but this has not been the case with whales. Data from Santiment, shared by Ali Martinez, reveals that XRP and DOGE whales engaged in accumulation during this market uncertainty.
Holders of the leading meme coin by market cap increased their holdings by adding over 470 million DOGE in just 48 hours. In USD terms, this equates to approximately $150 million in accumulation at an average price of $0.33 per token.
The XRP case is even more bullish, with whales acquiring over a billion tokens within the same time frame. At an average price of around $2.3, this two-day accumulation amounts to $2.3 billion.
Notably, both assets exhibited a more resilient response to this market crash compared to the previous one at the end of 2024, when BTC dropped towards $91,000. At that time, XRP suffered a significant decline, falling below $2 on several occasions. During the current correction, however, XRP's low reached $2.2, representing a 10% improvement, potentially aided by the aforementioned large purchases.
DOGE followed a similar pattern, plummeting to just over $0.26 on December 30, whereas its low during the current correction remains above $0.31.
Therefore, it is reasonable to conclude that whale accumulations provided support for both assets during the crash and could amplify their performance if they continue and the market rebounds in the coming days.