In a significant shift for the Australian cryptocurrency market, XRP has overtaken Bitcoin to become the most traded digital asset on BTC Markets, the country's largest local crypto exchange. This development, revealed in the exchange's newly released 2025 Investor Study Report, marks the first time in four years that XRP has claimed the top trading spot.
The data indicates a clear evolution in how Australian investors are interacting with the market. BTC Markets attributed XRP's trading lead primarily to its role as an On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) partner with Ripple, which embeds the asset directly into real-world payment flows rather than purely speculative cycles. This utility-driven usage is seen as creating consistent trading demand, especially during volatile market phases.
XRP's price performance in 2025 was notable, surging to a high of $3.34 in January—its highest point in eight years—before extending gains to $3.66 by July. A pullback later in the year brought the price closer to $1.80, yet trading interest on BTC Markets remained elevated throughout the financial year. The exchange also credited the strong and consistent engagement from the Australian XRP community for sustaining volume.
Despite losing the top trading spot, Bitcoin remains the dominant long-term holding among Australian investors. BTC Markets' national consumer study showed that 68% of respondents hold Bitcoin, reinforcing its role as a foundational portfolio asset. This highlights a nuanced market behavior where traders actively explore utility-driven narratives like XRP while maintaining Bitcoin as a core, long-term conviction holding.
Beyond XRP and Bitcoin, the top five traded assets on BTC Markets during the FY24 to FY25 period were completed by Ethereum (ETH), Tether (USDT), and Solana (SOL). The report noted that USDC dropped off the leaderboard, hinting at a reduced emphasis on capital preservation strategies among investors, who instead appear more comfortable rotating into assets tied to network activity and real-world utility.
BTC Markets supported 374,000 Australians during the financial year, with total trading volume reaching $4 billion. The platform reported a 25% increase in average trade sizes and a 17% rise in daily volumes, pointing to more deliberate and mature capital deployment. The exchange also observed rising participation from diverse demographic groups, including older Australians and women.
