- XRP ETF demand is at record highs with Canary Capital product recording a day one volume of $58M.
- The institutional hesitation persists with VanEck and BlackRock rejecting XRP ETFs.
- Ripple holdings and selling pressure are also important determinants of investor confidence.
XRP ETFs Break Records Despite Institutional Hesitation
The cryptocurrency market has seen a surge in interest for XRP ETFs following the introduction of a new fund by Canary Capital. The fund generated over $58 million in trading volume on the first day of its launch. This marked the highest initial trading volume of any of the 900 ETFs launched this year. On the first day of launch, inflows reached $250 million.
Despite the good performance, some of the key asset managers are still cautious. According to a spokesperson, BlackRock, a company that introduced Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs last year, has no intention to introduce XRP or Solana ETFs. Likewise, VanEck, which already released a Solana ETF, has not chosen to provide XRP products.
VanEck Head of Digital Assets Research Matthew Sigel has recently inquired about the value proposition of XRP, by posting a since-deleted comment on X where he mentioned, “How foundational can it [XRP] be if BlackRock and VanEck say nah.” The commentary reveals the persistent scepticism of the major institutional actors, despite the increase of market demand.
Ripple Holdings Ongoing Influence on Market Sentiment
Investor hesitation is also influenced by the market structure of XRP. Currently, Ripple has 34.76 billion XRP in escrow, this is approximately 35% of the supply. Previously, the company published 1 billion XRP monthly out of escrow with approximately 70% going to relocking and the rest going to operation expenses.
Critics claim that this model puts continuous sell-side pressure, which may adversely affect retail holders. However, XRP also has a strong community called the “XRP Army”.
Although the asset is useful in universal payments across borders via the on-demand liquidity system provided by Ripple, other analysts suspect that the combo of stablecoin use and corporate ownership reduces the long-term value of XRP as a mere all-purpose cryptocurrency.
Vanguard Opens Crypto ETFs to 50 million clients
To further change the institutional environment, Vanguard Group, which runs $11 trillion in assets, will now enable customers to trade cryptocurrency ETFs, such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, and Solana, beginning on December 2, 2025. These ETFs will be considered non-core holdings, just like gold, and memecoin products will not be included.
This is quite a turnaround of the previous policy of Vanguard. By early 2024, the firm had delisted all crypto ETFs on its platform due to its volatility. The new policy was occasioned by a strategic review that had been prompted by the change of leadership in 2024, with Salim Ramji taking on the role of CEO.
