The XRP price is trading at $0.5447 as of 4:30 am EST, up 3% over the last 24 hours.

XRP price has been rallying over the last few days, climbing 28% from a low of $0.4294 on April 13 to the current level.

XRP’s performance comes after the number of wallets holding at least 1 million XRP has been steadily increasing over the past six weeks, rising by 3.1% and approaching the all-time high, according to data from Santiment.

The growing number of XRP whales indicates a significant development for the Ripple ecosystem. These large-scale investors often have a substantial impact on price movements, as their buying and selling activities can create significant market momentum.

Increased accumulation from these high-net-worth individuals may be driving the current rally, with the number of XRP whale wallets just one shy of the all-time high as shown in the Santiment chart above.

Meanwhile, Ripple Labs, the crypto company behind the XRP cross border payments token, has filed a court response to the U.S> Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) demanding that the company pay fines totaling over $2 billion.

This follows the regulator’s announcement last month that the San-Francisco-based crypto firm will have to pay fines totaling over $2 billion for selling XRP to institutional investors. In its objection motion, Ripple countered that the actual amount should have been closer to $10 million.

Market participants expect the conclusion of the XRP case to take the price higher with some setting targets as high as $100.

From a technical point of view, XRP was fighting overhead resistance from the supply zone between $0.57 and $0.58. Note that this is where all the major moving averages sat. XRP bulls have to push the price above this to secure the recovery.

If this happens, the international remittance token will rise from the current levels first toward $0.60 and later to the $70,000 psychological level. Such a move would represent a 28% uptick from the current levels.

This positive outlook was supported by the moving average convergence divergence (MACD) indicator, which had sent a call to buy XRP on the daily chart. This happened on April 21, when the MACD line crossed above the zero signal line, indicating that the market conditions had flipped bullish.

TradingView Chart: XRP/USD

Key levels to watch on the downside are the support recently established at $0.52 and later the $0.50 psychological level. In highly bearish cases, XRP meat breach this level, sinking lower to seek solace from the swing low at $0.42.