The XRP cryptocurrency is experiencing a real paradox. While the first US spot ETF for this token recorded a record debut, large portfolios are massively shedding their holdings.
Record start for the fund, but the price is falling
On Thursday, the Canary Capital XRP ETF (XRPC) officially debuted on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, achieving the best performance among over 900 ETFs launched in 2025. On the first day, turnover amounted to USD 58 million, and net inflows exceeded USD 250 million – the highest result among all this year’s ETF launches.
Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas noted the fund’s structure based on in-kind creations, which enable the direct exchange of ETF shares for XRP. This mechanism means that actual institutional inflows are not visible in standard trading volume data.
Mass sale by whales
Despite the enthusiasm around the ETF launch, on-chain data reveals a disturbing trend. In just 48 hours, large wallets got rid of almost 200 million XRP tokens. This selling pressure coincided with a breakdown in the technical price structure – in the last 24 hours, XRP lost 5.4%, falling from $2.28 to $2.15.
Whales are wallets that control huge amounts of cryptocurrencies, often enough to trigger significant price movements. Their activity can drastically influence market sentiment and the direction of quotations.
Why do smart money buy and whales sell?
Paradoxically, at the same time as the whales were selling off their holdings, Nansen data shows that smart money accounts increased their long positions in XRP by $44 million in 24 hours.
Experts explain this discrepancy by several factors. First, cryptocurrency markets are still in a risk-averse environment. On the same day as the XRP ETF triumphed, Bitcoin ETFs recorded outflows of $866 million, the second worst result in history, according to data from Farside Investors.
Regulatory and historical context
XRP, currently the fourth largest cryptocurrency with a market capitalization of approximately USD 136 billion, was created in 2012 as an alternative to slow and expensive international bank transfers. The token has faced regulatory pressure for years, peaking in December 2020 when the SEC accused Ripple of selling unregistered securities.
The groundbreaking ruling of the federal court in July 2023, which found that XRP is not a securities traded on stock exchanges, paved the way for the return of institutions to the ecosystem of this cryptocurrency.
The launch of the spot ETF is undoubtedly a milestone, but the whales’ reaction shows that large players prefer to take profits rather than increase exposure in the current macroeconomic conditions.
