Since the United States presidential inauguration, overall bitcoin spot demand growth has slowed considerably. Spot demand growth is needed for BTC’s price to rally again; however, the metric has yet to make a comeback.

A CryptoQuant report revealed that despite the lack of such an increase, large BTC investors have entered a reaccumulation phase and are loading up on their bags.

Bitcoin Demand Growth is Slow

While spot demand growth is slow, bitcoin’s apparent demand has continued in expansion territory but at a slower pace. The rate of expansion has fallen from 279,000 BTC in early December 2024 to 75,000 BTC currently.

Additionally, the demand momentum increase has slumped from 1.7 million to 0.1 million between early December and now. Bitcoin needs to see an increase in this metric’s growth for its price to rally significantly.

Notably, bitcoin demand growth from large investors surged between January 14 and 17 ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump’s inauguration. CryptoQuant found that the monthly percentage rise of large investors’ BTC holdings rose from -0.25% to +2% between January 14 and 17, marking the highest monthly rate since mid-December.

On-chain data revealed that large investors have been one of the key drivers of bitcoin demand and price since the U.S. presidential election. This cohort of market participants has increased their holdings, while small investors have done the opposite. Between November 4 and January 24, the total holdings of large investors have grown from 16.2 million BTC to 16.4 million, while the stash of small investors has slumped from 1.75 million to 1.69 million BTC.

Large Investors Drive BTC Price

As large investors drive bitcoin demand and price, sell pressure has declined significantly, mainly after other holders sold their assets to realize profits during the rally in December. Analysts noted that realized daily profits were as high as $10 billion when BTC hovered around $100,000 in December.

Currently, daily realized profits have slumped to levels between $2 billion and $3 billion, indicating that traders have finished selling their BTC to a large extent. This can also be seen in traders’ unrealized profit margins falling to levels that often mark a price floor.

“The Traders’ On-chain Realized Profit Margin declined almost to zero in mid-January, after touching overheated levels near 60% in November-December as Bitcoin rallied towards $100K. A low realized profit margin for traders indicates there are less profits to be made by selling and hence lower selling pressure for Bitcoin,” CryptoQuant stated.

Bitcoin’s price has been gradually rising over the past few weeks, paving its way toward a new record high, which arrived on Monday. However, it lost some momentum, and the question is what will happen next.

Technical Analysis

By Edris Derakhshi (TradingRage)

The Daily Chart

On the daily timeframe, the asset rebounded from the $92K support level a couple of weeks ago. The $100K level has been broken to the upside recently, leading to a gradual rise toward the $110K level and potentially higher.

With the RSI indicating that the momentum is still bullish, it is very likely that the market will rally toward the $120K level soon.

The 4-Hour Chart

Looking at the 4-hour chart, the recent choppy price action can be clearly witnessed. The asset has been trapped between the $100K and $108K levels over the last ten days or so.

This has led to a lot of uncertainty surrounding the market trend in the near future. Yet, the overall market structure still remains bullish, and a breakout above the $108K resistance level is more probable than a bearish reversal.

On-Chain Analysis

By Edris Derakhshi (TradingRage)

Bitcoin Exchange Whale Ratio

As Bitcoin’s price has been consolidating recently after a significant rally in the past few months, investors are wondering whether the bull market is over. Analyzing on-chain metrics can offer useful clues to reach a conclusion about the current state of the market.

This chart presents the exchange whale ratio, which measures the ratio of exchange deposits by whales to total deposits. Therefore, it can be seen as a proxy of selling pressure by large investors.

As the chart demonstrates, the whale ratio metric has been rising recently, but it is still showing values far less than those witnessed earlier when BTC was trading around $70K. Therefore, more upside can still be expected if sufficient demand is present.

Massive leaps forward in pro-growth regulatory policy from Washington are one key meta for XRP prices in 2025. Meanwhile, the deployment of XRP Ledger for automated smart contracts is bound to run through a very attractive upside that analysts expect from the underlying asset in the new year.

The advance of Ripple on the regulatory front is especially important to its market price going forward. Right up until the US court chopped the SEC’s requested fine from $2 billion to $125 million last August, the lawsuit crippled XRP price growth.

.@Ripple Takes Over Washington DC pic.twitter.com/S1RGlueVED

— XRP (@BankXRP) January 20, 2025

That dramatic swing from a $2 billion hit to a slap-on-the-wrist fine signaled the utter lack of merit to the SEC’s arguments in the government’s view.

After that, when crypto markets rallied again on the victory of President Donald Trump in the November US elections, XRP took a moonshot ride up the chart. As a result, its gains for the trailing 12-month period significantly outsize those of its Top 4 non-stablecoin competitors by market cap.

For the 12 months ending Jan. 25, Ethereum moved slowly with 40% gains. Meanwhile, Bitcoin gained a decent 160% by cryptocurrency ROI standards. Solana jumped by 201%. But, Ripple’s XRP tokens grew by approximately 500%. Most of that was after the August US District Court decision and the November election.

Ripple Labs winning at the forefront of the regulatory battle with the US government cements its place as a leader in the blockchain sector. That creates more long-term support for XRP’s price.

Here are four signals that XRP has more growth left in it in 2025:

1. Trump Bump Pushes XRP Price Forward

The reelection of President Donald Trump to the White House is a deliciously bullish portent for XRP prices in the coming years. Not only has Ripple Labs prevailed through the grueling years of a hot SEC lawsuit, but Mr. Trump himself sat down with Ripple’s leadership team on Jan. 7 to discuss crypto’s future.

BREAKING:

RIPPLE CEO BRAD GARLINGHOUSE & RIPPLE LAWYER STUART ALDEROTY JUST MET WITH PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP!

2025 WILL BE INSANELY BIG FOR #XRP pic.twitter.com/gNLD2Vf9KO

— (@_Crypto_Barbie) January 8, 2025

Since Donald Trump’s victory in November, XRP token prices rallied 500%. The nice-making with President Trump and other government officials is no mere window dressing. It has substance to it.

“Great dinner last night with Donald Trump and Stuart Alderoty,” said Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse on a photo of him and Chief Legal Officer Stuart Alderoty meeting with the then president-elect. In another post, Alderoty piped in to say, “The beef bourguignon was really good.”

It’s not just in the US where Ripple is making great strides forward with governments. It’s primarily a cross-border payment platform for large institutions moving vast amounts of cash. Foreign central banks are working on using Ripple technology and platforms to issue central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).

2. Investor Touts XRP Chart Strength

Meanwhile, more cryptocurrency investors may be taking another look at XRP after its class-leading gains over the past three months.

One former XRP skeptic, Practical Crypto Capital, was once bearish on the asset but recently flipped to bullish. The analyst once stated that there is “no reason to hold XRP for the long term.”

But they recently changed their tune, saying that Ripple’s settlement tokens could easily double over their January levels: “With all the momentum building for XRP, I believe it could easily provide another price doubling, and possibly much more.”

The analyst pointed to “chart strength, upcoming positive events, and an over-enthusiastic community behind XRP.” PCC is a research analyst on Seeking Alpha who says they manage a 7-figure portfolio “currently 100% in cryptocurrencies and/or related businesses.”

Practical Crypto Capital isn’t so into the cross-border payments narrative or CBDCs long term, but depending on what altcoins they’ve been minding, XRP Ledger may give them some other reasons to be bullish.

On January 28th, for XRP Community Day, Ripple President Monica Long will discuss Ripple Labs’ main priorities for 2025 with a big focus on XRP Ledger.

Join @MonicaLongSF, Ripple’s President, as she discusses Ripple’s key priorities for 2025, including how the company is utilizing the XRPL to drive innovation and ecosystem growth.

January 28th, 7:30 PM ET
️ https://t.co/Xcf6DDJCIt

Drop a question for Monica in the… pic.twitter.com/67jtJd041i

— RippleX (@RippleXDev) January 22, 2025

3. Big XRP Whale Splashes

Crypto economies are vast and rapidly expanding but still small enough that whale-sized moves by major participants can build and sustain lasting price support and growth momentum. Whale support for XRP is strong in January.

On Jan. 10, such large market participants bought over 1 billion XRP tokens in under 48 hours, worth some $2.3 billion at the time of purchase.

After that, on Saturday, Jan. 18, an XRP whale moved 30,000,000 XRP valued at $95,519,899 at the time from an Upbit to an unknown wallet. While there is no guarantee that this whale won’t sell those tokens later, it lowers the liquidity supply on crypto exchanges, which supports XRP prices.

30,000,000 #XRP (95,519,899 USD) transferred from #Upbit to unknown wallethttps://t.co/FwwJoMhxET

— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) January 19, 2025

4. New SEC Chair to End ‘War on Crypto’

A big part of the Trump bump is the moral support from the White House administration for an industry that was even legally questionable in the United States until recently. In China, cryptocurrencies have been banned altogether.

In addition to the president’s broad support for cryptocurrency adoption, he’s pledged to appoint an SEC chair who is legally fair to the sector.

The new SEC chair, Mark Uyeda, told Fox Business in November that “The Commission’s war on crypto must end, including crypto enforcement actions solely based on a failure to register with no allegation of fraud or harm.”

“President Trump and the American electorate have sent a clear message. Starting in 2025, the SEC’s role is to carry out that mandate,” Uyeda added.