XRP ETFs see a flood of inflows — but price isn’t keeping up

Investors are enjoying XRP’s dip by piling back into the Ripple-backed crypto’s exchange-traded funds.

Over the past week, nearly $19 million has flowed into XRP ETFs, according to SoSoValue data. The products — which debuted in November — now manage a combined total of close to $1.1 billion in assets.

Still, XRP’s price is over 60% below its all-time high, recently trading for around $1.40, according to CoinGecko. Over the past 30 days, the fifth biggest coin has shed nearly 11% of its value.

Flows into the XRP ETFs are small fish compared to what has been deployed into Bitcoin funds, however. In the past week alone, investors have pumped over $1.3 billion into Bitcoin ETFs.

‘Not normal’

While the ETF flows pale in comparison to their Bitcoin counterparts, experts told DL News that the two products are very different beasts.

Bitcoin ETFs, which launched in January 2024, had the most successful debut in the history of ETFs. The products, managed by the likes of BlackRock, Fidelity, and Grayscale, manage a total of around $107 billion in assets, according to DefiLlama.

Despite its staggering popularity, market watchers reckon investors should remain level-headed when analysing Bitcoin ETFs.

“We need to remember that Bitcoin ETFs are a massive outlier. They were the most successful ETF launch of all time by a factor of six,” Bitwise Asset Management’s chief investment officer, Matt Hougan, said. “They are not normal.”

He added that while XRP ETFs haven’t attracted the same amount of capital as its Bitcoin and Ethereum counterparts, they are doing well considering market conditions.

The broader crypto market has been lambasted by a variety of factors, including a $19 billion liquidation event on October 10, massive macro headwinds, and geopolitical turmoil.

Ripple bounces back

XRP is closely linked to Ripple, a fintech company that claims to use blockchain tech to move money for big institutions.

Ripple, which holds a large amount of XRP, is racing to deploy technology that lets financial institutions mint CBDCs, or central bank digital currencies. It is also adding payment processing technology for stablecoins.

Ric Edelman, the founder of the Digital Assets Council of Financial Professionals, told DL News that while investors — particularly ETF buyers — were mainly interested in Bitcoin and Ethereum for now, XRP still had a chance.

“The tech remains viable; perhaps over time it will get the attention it once enjoyed,” he said, noting that XRP was far more popular years ago.

Mathew Di Salvo is a news correspondent with DL News. Got a tip? Email at mdisalvo@dlnews.com.