Whales Flock to U.S. Exchanges as Liquidity Surges Amid Regulatory Clarity

XRP is seeing a significant boost in liquidity on U.S. exchanges, making these platforms increasingly attractive to large investors, commonly known as “whales.” Recent data from CCData reveals that the order book liquidity on U.S. exchanges like Coinbase and Kraken is 30% higher than that of offshore exchanges such as Binance and OKX. This means that larger transactions can be executed with minimal price slippage, a critical factor for high-volume traders.

As of this week, the 1% market depth on U.S. exchanges has increased by 53% since July last year, outpacing the 43.2% growth seen on offshore platforms. Market depth, a measure of an exchange’s ability to handle large buy and sell orders without significant price fluctuations, is a key indicator of liquidity. The greater the depth, the easier it is to execute large trades without impacting the market price significantly.

This surge in liquidity and market depth is largely attributed to the growing demand for XRP in the U.S., spurred by the reduced regulatory uncertainty following Ripple Labs’ partial victory against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Last year, a court ruled that Ripple’s institutional sales of XRP did not constitute unregistered securities offerings, marking a significant legal win for the company. This ruling has since encouraged U.S. exchanges to re-list XRP, attracting more trading activity.

Adding to this momentum, earlier this week, Ripple was fined $125 million for its institutional sales of XRP—a penalty far less than the $2 billion sought by the SEC. The reduced penalty was seen as a win by the market, resulting in a 20% spike in XRP’s price.

As trading volumes on U.S. exchanges pick up, these platforms now account for 14% of global XRP trading volume, a level not seen in four years. This shift indicates a growing preference for U.S. exchanges among XRP whales, who value the improved liquidity and reduced regulatory risk.