Coinbase's XRP reserves have been falling for several months, with new on-chain data showing a decline of 57.4% since early June. The exchange held nearly 1 billion XRP across 52 cold wallets, but now it's about half and there's a bigger transfer this week.
Currently, ten wallets hold about 26.8 million XRPs each, while another 42 wallets hold about 16.8 million XRPs. In one of the latest moves, 1669 million XRP (equivalent to about $54.83 million) has moved from Coinbase Cold Wallet 155 to Coinbase Cold Wallet 10. This was an internal transfer.
The destination of these coins is unknown. Analysts believe the forwarding is supplying new subwillets tied to BitStamp, Bitgo and Ripple's on-demand requisite networks. Others believe that Coinbase is reorganizing its reserves and reorganizing it to position itself for use or price changes.
XRP risk?
There are no indications of failure or panic sales in the way these transfers are being processed. The amount and timing suggest that many plans were involved, focusing on where the assets were located so that they could be accessed efficiently.
Coinbase doesn't have XRP as much as it used to be. This is because more and more people are interested in using tokens for payments and cross-border transactions.
If this trend continues, Coinbase may have little control over the large XRP flows, and more assets may be moving through other exchanges and management channels.
