New XRP Wallets Just Hit Their Sixth-Highest Day of 2026. Are They New Buyers or Coins Leaving Binance?

The XRP (CRYPTO:XRP) Ledger added 7,934 new wallets this week, its sixth-highest daily total of the year, according to Santiment, a crypto analytics firm that tracks blockchain and social data. They noted that “XRP network growth is accelerating fast,” but the spike in XRP new wallets coincided with Binance reopening XRP withdrawals.

Binance had paused withdrawals after a hacking incident in late October, and its phase-one restart on November 1 included XRP as one of the first assets cleared for withdrawal. This meant that users who had been unable to access their funds for days could finally move their coins. When they transferred XRP to a new address, it was logged as a brand-new wallet.

XRP is currently at $1.28, up 2.6% over 24 hours. This puts XRP ahead of Bitcoin (CRYPTO:BTC) (0.4%), Ethereum (CRYPTO:ETH) (1.4%), and Solana (CRYPTO:SOL) (0.5%).

However, despite the current uptick, XRP remains 64.9% below its all-time high of $3.65 on July 17, 2025, and has fallen 31.6% in 2026, making it the weakest performer of the four. This raises the question of whether those 7,934 new wallets were created by new investors or by existing holders migrating XRP to different addresses.

Santiment’s New-Wallet Count Usually Signals New XRP Buyers

Santiment defines network growth as the number of new addresses that appear on a blockchain on a specific day. On the XRP Ledger, an address is created when someone sends enough XRP to meet the network’s minimum balance requirement. This means that each of the 7,934 wallets noted on November 1 received XRP from a previous source.

Traditionally, new addresses are interpreted as new buyers entering the market. Santiment considers this network growth to be “among the top leading signals” for price movements, as new buyers often purchase coins on exchanges and then transfer them to personal wallets before a price surge.

Santiment’s sentiment data supports this perspective, indicating a general weakening of sentiment around Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, and other top cryptocurrencies for nearly two months. Growth in new wallets during this downturn is often viewed as a classic contrarian signal, suggesting potential future demand.

Binance’s Withdrawal Restart Explains Much of the XRP Wallet Spike

However, a new wallet can simply reflect a change in custody rather than a new purchase. For instance, if a Binance customer bought XRP in September and then withdrew it to a new hardware wallet on November 1, the ledger would log a new address, but no XRP would change owners, and no new money would come in.

Binance’s announcement supports this interpretation. The exchange said it ranked networks for the restart based on the previous week’s user demand data and warned of potential delays due to high traffic, suggesting users rushed to withdraw their funds. Exchanges like Binance often shift to different hot wallets for security reasons after a breach, which could also contribute to the increase in wallet count.

Trading volume further illustrates this point. On November 1, XRP’s trading volume stood at about 19.6 million, compared to approximately 118.7 million on October 30 during the hack-induced sell-off. XRP stayed near $1.25 throughout the day, and trading has only increased since, with XRP reaching an intraday high near $1.29. Retail conversation around XRP was also subdued, with only three mentions on Reddit between October 30 and November 3.

Moreover, this metric does not account for buyers who leave their XRP on exchanges, as most transactions are handled through the exchange’s order books without affecting the blockchain. Therefore, a spike in wallet creation on a withdrawal day can create the impression of increased adoption, even if it mainly reflects existing holders moving their coins. Nonetheless, coins in personal wallets tend to sell more slowly than those kept on exchanges, which could ease some selling pressure on XRP.

Repeat Spikes and a Close Above $1.39 Could Confirm New XRP Demand

Binance’s withdrawal backlog is a one-time situation, so this trend’s continuation will be essential to determining whether new demand is emerging. If Santiment continues to report some of 2026’s highest daily counts after the rush subsides, the theory of existing holders changing wallets will weaken. A subsequent spike in late November, with no exchange reopening behind it, could indicate that new buyers are entering the market.

An increase in daily active addresses—wallets sending or receiving XRP each day—would also be a positive sign. However, transactions between wallets provide more insight than the activity on the ledger’s built-in exchange, where trading bots can inflate transaction counts.

Regarding price movements, XRP typically aligns with Bitcoin but is currently trading below its 20-day moving average of $1.30 and its 50-day average of $1.39, hovering around its 200-day average of $1.28. After a brief rise to about $1.29, it fell back again. Additionally, the hacker behind the Binance theft is still holding XRP, and if those coins reach exchanges, they could affect supply just as demand starts to grow.

XRP New Wallets: Are They New Buyers or Coins Leaving Binance?

Overall, we believe the spike in new wallets on November 1 largely reflects existing holders moving their XRP off Binance rather than a wave of new buyers. The timing aligns with the withdrawal restart, trading volume stayed light on November 1, and various indicators suggest that this influx may not signify new demand.

Repeat spikes or a daily close above $1.39 could change that view, but for now, the wallets look like holders moving coins.

Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.