Why XRP was the most-traded altcoin in August

Journalist

Posted: September 9, 2023

XRP was the worst-performing altcoin in August.
Offshore exchanges spurred selling pressure, while U.S.-based platforms saw buying demand.

The joys of the partial victory in the hotly contested legal battle against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) were short-lived, as Ripple [XRP] nearly reversed all the gains in the August drawdown.

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At press time, the payment-focused crypto lost nearly 21% of its value over the last month, data from CoinMarketCap revealed. Moreover, the collapse made XRP the worst-performing altcoin in the aforementioned period.

XRP outpaces other alts in trading volume

Plagued by negative sentiment, XRP traders rushed to lock in gains. As per crypto market data provider Kaiko, XRP recorded significantly higher trading activity in August vis-à-vis other alts.

In fact, XRP’s average daily volume during the month was a whopping $462.8 million, 4x times higher than the next-ranked Solana [SOL].

Source: Kaiko

Offshore exchanges drive sell-offs

Interestingly, the bulk of the selling pressure was exerted by non-U.S. based exchanges, according to a recent report by Kaiko. Upbit, South Korea’s largest exchange and OKX had a sell volume ratio of over 50%.

Source: Kaiko

It should be known that XRP is the most traded altcoin on offshore exchanges. It sees high demand in South Korea, in particular, and traders in the East Asian country have historically exhibited a greater affinity for the token.

To further elucidate this, XRP was the most-traded altcoin and the second-most traded crypto asset on Upbit, the country’s premier exchange, per data from CoinGecko.

U.S. exchanges see buying demand

On the other hand, trading activity on U.S.-based exchanges like Coinbase was driven by buyers. Kaiko stated,

“This could suggest that buying demand was driven by large traders in the U.S. as investors re-gained access to the token after the July court ruling.”

The above assertion was corroborated by data from Santiment. Big whales, comprising the cohort holding between 100,000 to 10 million XRP tokens, have been steadily adding on to their portfolios over the last week.

Source: Santiment

Read Ripple’s [XRP] Price Prediction 2023-24

It was pertinent to note that unlike offshore exchanges, XRP was only the sixth most traded altcoin in the U.S., per Kaiko.

XRP’s retail ownership rises

An encouraging development which caught attention was the increase in the number of retail investors of XRP. Since last week’s dip in prices, addresses owning 1–10 tokens have increased their holdings by nearly 10,000. This suggested that they bought the dip.