XRP Slides to $1.4 After 50M Sell-Off on Upbit

TheNewsCryptoPublished on 2026-02-16Last updated on 2026-02-16

Abstract

XRP's price dropped to approximately $1.4 following a significant sell-off on the South Korean exchange Upbit. A total of 50 million XRP was sold within a 15-hour period, with analysis indicating that less than 0.07% of the activity was wash trading, suggesting the selling pressure was largely genuine. The heavy selling, which occurred between 8:00 AM and 12:00 PM KST, contributed to a broader crypto market downturn and pushed XRP to a two-day low. Despite this, the token had shown signs of recovery earlier, briefly reaching $1.6 amid market optimism, even as it faced volatility and external factors such as the US government shutdown.

The latest trial of XRP to rebound was stopped after a sudden wave of selling pressure on Upbit. The push of the Ripple token to break the prolonged bearish trend immediately went in the opposite direction, taking the price down to about the $1.4 mark.

A data alchemist named Dom posted on X on February 16 that the current pullback in the XRP price is mainly associated with a mega sell-off on Upbit. This immediate increase in sales boosted the existing crypto market crash. Not only this, but it also strengthened the price of XRP in downward motion, taking the price to a two-day low.

Talking about Upbit, it is the biggest crypto exchange in South Korea, which witnessed an extraordinary trading volume when customers implemented 50 million XRP sell orders at the time of a brief 15-hour period.

This major XRP dumping event shows two possible situations, including a mega whale selling its assets or retail traders who panic-sold their cryptocurrency. Out of the 50 million sales, just 0.07% consisted of wash trading.

This shows that the major part of the Ripple token sales on Upbit was real. Dam also mentioned that his analysis revealed that wash trading made up not more than 0.07% of the overall activity, revealing that most of the selling pressure was real.

The Increasing Optimism

Adding more to this, the chemist mentioned that the exchange listed 12,775 various trade sizes, with the heaviest selling taking place between 8:00 AM and 12:00 PM KST. At this time, the order book was managing about 2,500 sell orders in a minute, having individual trades going from 100,000 to 250,000 XRP.

The XRP price witnessed extreme volatility in the past few months, indicating the normal trends of the crypto market. However, it also witnessed a rebound regardless of the US government shutdown, igniting anticipations of a probable market rally.

The analyst speculates that the XRP price would witness an upward trajectory when it traded at $1.4 on Saturday, regardless of the government shutdown. The token then went to sit at the $1.6 mark while traders anticipated that the price would continuously rise.

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