The Binance hackers have swapped $50 million in stolen XRP into Bitcoin according to Elliptic, but the XRP ecosystem is experiencing multiple crises that could limit their ability to move the funds.
The XRP price crashed to $1.21 this week, falling to its lowest point in 11 weeks, while one exchange offer showed only 1.45% of advertised USD tokens were actually funded.
The hackers' XRP movement occurred through multiple wallet addresses, with most of the cryptocurrency being converted to Bitcoin. Ripple's cross-border token dropped 9.5% on the day after reaching $1.35 just days earlier, closing at $1.19 with a market cap of $75 billion.
The steep decline came despite whale activity, as over 13 million XRP tokens were withdrawn from exchanges and whale holdings increased by 60 million coins in a single week.
Traders face severe liquidity constraints. One Bitstamp USD offer at validated ledger 108120236 advertised 1,241,760 USD tokens but had only 17,967 funded, a 1.45% funding rate. This single offer accounted for nearly the entire sampled shortfall, showing why advertised order sizes can mislead about actual tradeable inventory.
The gap between quoted and funded tokens reached $1.31 million on the refresh day, demonstrating how inflated order books don't guarantee execution.
Market-wide pressure accelerated XRP's decline. BTC dropped from $81,000 to $75,000, and most altcoins followed suit. XRP performed worst among the top 30 altcoins with a 9.5% daily drop.
ETF inactivity hurt XRP, with $540 million in Binance outflows and SoSoValue data showing little to no demand for XRP ETFs through mid-week. While analyst Ali Martinez predicted a breakout to $2.10, the surge to $1.35 proved a false breakout as violent market corrections disrupted even the strongest technical setups.
DeFi development offers some hope. The XRP Ledger's lending upgrade XLS-66 gained three additional validator Yes votes, reaching 23 out of 35 (60% support). The amendment now needs only six more Yes votes to reach supermajority.
XLS-66 aims to add native fixed-term and non-collateralized lending, potentially enabling borrowers to secure loans without crypto collateral exceeding loan amounts through Single Asset Vaults.