XRP’s Stealth Accumulation: Why Flat Prices Mask Massive Buying Pressure
XRP's price stagnation hides a brewing storm of institutional accumulation.
The Calm Before The Crypto Storm
While retail traders focus on daily price movements, smart money builds positions in plain sight. XRP's sideways trading pattern creates the perfect cover for major players loading up without moving markets.
Whale Watching Season
Exchange outflows tell the real story—digital assets disappearing into cold storage faster than traditional finance can process another fee-heavy ETF application. The quiet accumulation phase often precedes explosive moves that leave latecomers chasing.
Timing beats guessing every time in crypto—unless you're a Wall Street fund charging 2% for underperformance.
US measures hit Sinopec’s refining network
The Rizhao Shihua terminal, partly owned by Sinopec, connects to multiple refineries across Shandong through a long pipeline network. The blacklisting came after the facility was accused of handling shipments linked to Iran, a direct violation of American sanctions.
Data reviewed by Bloomberg reportedly shows that the terminal brought in over 1 million barrels per day of crude last year, with 189,000 barrels traced to Iran.
Analysts at Energy Aspects predict that the disruption could cut refinery runs by as much as 250,000 barrels per day, affecting operations at several key plants.
Sinopec’s Luoyang refinery, which processes around 200,000 barrels per day, is expected to take the biggest hit, given its heavy dependence on crude arriving through Rizhao’s pipeline. Other connected sites, like Yangzi and Jinling refineries, could also see short-term slowdowns as supply tightens.
“The main impact falls on state-run refiners that receive non-sanctioned crude through the terminal, as sanctioned oil accounts for less than 25% of the terminal’s crude imports,” said Emma Li, senior market analyst at Vortexa.
Tankers change destinations as rerouting accelerates
Bloomberg’s tracking data show that tankers began changing course immediately after the sanctions were announced. Early Monday, Spherical switched from Rizhao to Caofeidian in Hebei province.
Meanwhile, other vessels waiting offshore near Shandong have either turned off tracking signals or are now heading for Ningbo and Tianjin, avoiding any risk tied to the blacklisted terminal.
Unlike previous trade wars that targeted small independent “teapot” refiners, this round directly hits Sinopec, a state-owned energy giant that serves as China’s biggest oil importer.
As well as being routed to different ports, oil that was headed to Rizhao could also be offloaded onto smaller ships to be taken to Sinopec refineries along the Yangtze River that get their oil via the pipeline from the terminal in Shandong, Energy Aspects said in a note last week.
Traders are expected to reroute most cargoes to nearby ports in Zhoushan, Ningbo, and Tianjin, helping to ease the disruption but still slowing refinery throughput in the short term.
Energy Aspects also said that the overall effect on China’s oil demand should be temporary, as rerouting capacity expands and replacement berths are secured.
But the sanctions have temporarily removed a terminal responsible for nearly one-tenth of the nation’s oil imports, an abrupt reminder that geopolitical decisions in Washington can upend cargo movements across China’s coast overnight.
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