Ripple opened Swell 2026 in New York on Tuesday, October 27, a day after winning final OCC approval for its national trust bank, while the 1 billion XRP it unlocked from escrow on October 1 has still not left its wallets. That last part is the XRP Ripple story most of this week’s coverage misses.
For a token that has lost 15.8% in a month, a billion coins sitting still is worth a closer look. XRP trades at $1.29, up 0.3% in 24 hours, on $1.35 billion in volume.
So who is moving XRP ahead of Swell, and who isn’t?
XRP Whales Now Control Most Supply Since 2022
Wallets holding at least 10M XRP now control 46.87B tokens. That represents roughly 68.5% of XRP’s supply, the highest share held by this group since November 2022.
The key signal is that these massive holders have kept… pic.twitter.com/YOvZB3pT08
— Santiment Intelligence (@SantimentData) October 26, 2026
Latest XRP Ripple News: What Did Ripple Announce This Week?
A bank charter and a yield product for corporate cash, and neither one uses XRP directly.
- The bank: the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency gave Ripple final approval on Monday to open Ripple National Trust Bank. Ripple’s announcement says it will hold the reserves behind the RLUSD stablecoin and keep digital assets in custody for institutions. It won’t take deposits or make loans.
- The yield product: Ripple Treasury, the corporate software built on the $1 billion GTreasury deal, launched 24/7 Returns on the same day. It lets eligible companies earn a return on RLUSD while banks are shut. Ripple gave no rate, and the release doesn’t mention XRP once.
- The stage: Swell runs October 27–29 at The Shed in Hudson Yards, and Ripple’s event page says it has folded its Apex developer event into Swell for the first time.
CEO Brad Garlinghouse framed the charter as proof that crypto and banks work better together.
Big news heading into @RippleSwell: the @USOCC has granted final approval for Ripple National Trust Bank.
This gives Ripple a federally supervised platform to support $RLUSD and provide digital asset custody to enterprises.
We’ve always said crypto and banks work better…
— Brad Garlinghouse (@bgarlinghouse) October 26, 2026
DISCOVER: XRP Takes Over NYC Subways Ahead of Ripple Swell 2026 as Price Faces Key Tests
What Does XRP On-Chain Data Show Before Swell?
The biggest holders are adding, but the selling pressure hasn’t gone away. Start with Ripple itself.
On October 1, four escrow contracts released 1 billion XRP into two Ripple wallets that XRPScan labels “Ripple 10” and “Ripple 11”, 500 million each. A check of the XRP Ledger on October 27 shows both wallets still hold those 500 million XRP, and neither has sent a single payment since.
Each has another 500 million XRP escrow that matures on Sunday, November 1. In other words, by the weekend, about 2 billion unlocked XRP could be sitting in just two Ripple wallets, the biggest XRP Ripple supply question of the month.
Whales are stacking. Santiment’s count shows wallets holding at least 10 million XRP now control 46.87 billion tokens, about 68.5% of supply, the highest share since November 2022. The growth sits at the very top: analyst Ali Martinez noted that wallets holding 10 million to 100 million XRP fell from 351 to 339 between October 19 and 25.
Exchanges tell the other half. CryptoQuant counted 6.05 billion XRP sent to exchanges in the 30 days to October 19, the most since March, while the 90-day average of whale withdrawals dropped to $49.7 million, the lowest since October 2021. U.S. spot XRP ETFs lost $3.61 million on Monday, all from Bitwise’s fund, which leaves it with $1.47 billion in assets.
XRP Price Analysis: Can XRP Ripple Get Back Above Its EMAs?
Not yet. XRP closed yesterday at $1.3092 on Binance and trades near $1.2990, under both its 50-day exponential moving average (EMA), a moving average that weights recent prices more heavily, at $1.3601, and its 200-day EMA at $1.3709.
- The ceiling: $1.3601 to $1.3709. The two EMAs sit about a cent apart, a thick ceiling right overhead.
- The level that changes the picture: $1.3992. The October 21 high, where the last bounce died.
- The floor to defend: $1.2546. Saturday’s low, close to the $1.2562 that held on October 18.
| Path | What has to happen | Next stop |
|---|---|---|
| Push higher | A daily close above $1.3709, the 200-day EMA | $1.3992, the October 21 high |
| Stall | Holding between $1.2546 and $1.3709 | More sideways trade under the EMAs |
| Slip | A daily close below $1.2546 | $1.20, the round number below |
An untouched unlock isn’t a promise that Ripple won’t sell; it can still relock the coins or move them after the conference. That is why the wallets to watch this week aren’t on an exchange. If Ripple 10 or Ripple 11 start sending XRP out after Swell, that will say more about this month’s supply than any keynote.
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The post Ripple Leaves October’s 1 Billion XRP Unlock Untouched for 26 Days: Will Swell Week Change That? appeared first on 99Bitcoins.
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