The xrp etf surge reshaping crypto flows
Ripple’s XRP has become the rarest thing in crypto this winter: a steady bid. While spot Bitcoin and Ether ETFs have leaked cash in ugly, headline friendly bursts, U.S. spot XRP ETFs have strung together something that looks almost old fashioned. They have not posted a single net outflow day since their mid-November 2025 debut.
That streak matters less as a parlour trick than as a clue. It suggests an investor base that buys, files it away, and comes back for more. Meanwhile, the flagship products in crypto’s ETF era have started to look more like trading instruments again, with money rushing in and out on macro headlines, rate expectations, and risk appetite.
Cumulative XRP ETF inflows have now pushed past $1.5 billion. By 16 December, they had crossed $1.0 billion. By year end, net assets sat near $1.18 billion, with total net asset value around $1.37 billion. As of 6 January 2026, total net asset value was still about $1.37 billion, even as weekly inflows kept running at roughly $43 million or more.
However, the day that crystallised the rotation was 31 December. Profit taking usually shows up before the confetti. Instead, spot XRP ETFs pulled in a net $5.58 million and XRP jumped about 11%. Meanwhile, spot Bitcoin ETFs bled $357.7 million and spot Ether ETFs lost $224.8 million. The flow map that day did not require interpretation. It was money moving from one set of rails to another.
The issuers built a proper on-ramp
XRP’s ETF line up is no longer a curiosity. It is a competitive shelf, with recognisable names fighting on fees and liquidity. Therefore, allocators can treat XRP exposure like a standard portfolio decision rather than an exchange account experiment.
- REX XRPR launched on 18 September 2025 and has about $96 million in assets under management.
- Canary Capital XRPC reached Nasdaq on 13 November.
- Bitwise’s XRP ETF and Franklin Templeton’s XRPZ debuted in November, with Ripple seeding both with sizeable XRP allocations.
- 21Shares TOXR cleared listing on 10 December and began trading on Cboe BZX on 11 December.
All five major tickers sit inside the familiar plumbing of the U.S. market, including DTCC registration. Meanwhile, fees have tightened quickly. The pack largely clusters around 0.30% to 0.75%. 21Shares sits at the low end at 0.30%, while Bitwise waived fees on the first $500 million, a blunt incentive for early scale.
Outside the U.S., XRP wrappers were already being normalised. Bitwise’s European lines, including the ETP trading as XRPW on venues such as Deutsche Börse Xetra, SIX, and Euronext, charge about 0.50% and hold XRP with regulated custodians. That matters because U.S. ETFs did not start from zero. Some institutions had already trained their operational muscles on similar structures abroad.
Supply maths starts to compete with macro noise
ETF products now hold about 746 million XRP, roughly 1.14% of the 65.5 billion circulating supply. That is not yet a choke point. Still, it is enough to frame 2026 as a tug of war between new demand and the available float.
If the December pace of roughly $483 million of monthly inflows held, XRP ETF assets could pass $5.8 billion by year end. Standard Chartered’s Geoffrey Kendrick has argued for an $8 XRP by late 2026, based on a simple idea. If ETFs draw $10 billion of inflows in 2026, they must buy several billion tokens, even at average prices around $2.20. Therefore, shrinking exchange balances, plus steady ETF accumulation, could create genuine tightness.
Yet price has not played along. XRP mostly churned between $1.80 and $2.40 through the fourth quarter, despite the steady drip of ETF buying. However, that gap between flows and price may itself be the trade. In crypto, narrative usually leads flows. Here, flows are trying to lead narrative.
Why institutions seem comfortable owning it
ETF desks describe the tone as deliberate rather than frenzied. Franklin Templeton’s David Mann has called XRP “foundational” for cross border settlement. Meanwhile, WisdomTree’s Dovile Silenskyte has suggested altcoin exposures like XRP could beat a standard Bitcoin and Ether mix in a risk on regime.
The comparison that keeps coming up is Solana. Spot Solana ETFs, launched in late October 2025, have gathered about $792 million in cumulative inflows. XRP has outpaced that early, and it has done so with less noise. Therefore, the simplest explanation is that some allocators see XRP as payments infrastructure exposure, not just another high beta token.
The plumbing story is getting real, quietly
Not every datapoint sits on an ETF terminal. Infrastructure firms are also testing whether decentralised rails can carry conventional workloads and payments without breaking. Salad.com, which manages around 60,000 daily active GPUs, is working with Golem Network to see whether DePIN style compute and crypto settlement can plug into existing commercial demand.
Salad’s pitch is practical. Centralised processors and billing layers add friction and cost at scale. Golem’s marketplace and settlement approach might reduce that. Bob Miles, Salad’s chief executive, said the pair are exploring how workloads, revenue, and Salad’s rewards programme could flow through DePIN. Early tests have already produced engineering insight, and crypto payments remain a frequent customer request.
This matters for XRP’s story because it links the market’s settlement narrative to actual operational experiments. Meanwhile, traders have tended to treat XRP as a headline token tied to regulation and court filings. The ETF flows suggest a different view is taking root.
By the numbers
- $1.5bn+ cumulative inflows since mid-November 2025 U.S. launch
- $5.58m net inflow on 31 December, while BTC ETFs lost $357.7m and ETH ETFs lost $224.8m
- ~746m XRP held by ETFs, about 1.14% of 65.5bn circulating supply
- 0.30% to 0.75% typical fee range, with TOXR at 0.30%
- $43m+ recent weekly inflow run rate
Key takeaways
- Persistent inflows without outflow days point to allocator behaviour, not fast money.
- The 31 December flow split signalled a measurable pivot away from BTC and ETH beta.
- Fee compression suggests issuers expect real scale, which can deepen liquidity quickly.
- Price has lagged flows, which can tempt mean reversion trades, but also raises timing risk.
- Watch exchange balances and ETF creation baskets, since supply tightness is the core bull case.
