$400 Million Worth of Ripple’s XRP Transferred to Bithumb, There’s One Possible Reason

Massive amounts of Ripple’s XRP have been transferred to various exchanges, including $400 million sent to Bithumb in three separate transactions. 

One possible explanation for this could be the fact that there’s the SPARK (FLR) airdrop coming in two days, causing investors to capitalize on the opportunity and receive 1:1 FLR tokens on their XRP holdings. 

XRP Sent Around in Massive Chunks Over the Past 24 Hours

Data from the well-known whale-tracking transaction resource Whale Alert shows a multitude of XRP transfers, each of which exceeds the boundaries of a regular transaction. 

Around 9 hours ago, three separate transfers saw upwards of $400 million worth of XRP moved to the popular cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb. 

But that’s just one example. Since then, millions of XRP has been transferred to various addresses, where each transaction meets the criteria of Whale Alert. A lot of the movement also happened to exchange wallets. 

For instance, one user transferred about $24 million to Huobi, whereas many transactions took place between unflagged addresses. 

A Possible Explanation

While the reasons for the transfers could be numerous and remain undisclosed, one possible explanation could be the upcoming SPARK (FLR) airdrop. 

This is an event that will distribute millions of FLR (Flare Network) tokens and is already supported by the majority of the most popular exchanges, including Huobi and Bithumb, where the above transactions took place to.

As CryptoPotato reported, the airdrop will happen at a rate of 1:1. This means that for every XRP that users have, they will receive a free FLR token. The number of XRP will be determined by a snapshot taken on December 12th. The exchanges have different participation criteria, but in general, the concept is fairly similar. 

This could explain why people are transferring big chunks of their holdings to an exchange wallet. After all, the FLR token will begin trading at some point, and it’s literally free for people to acquire it.