Spot XRP exchange-traded funds have just posted their ninth consecutive day of net inflows, with daily net inflows jumping 72% between Aug. 24 and Aug. 25—from $13.88 million to $23.87 million—and total assets under management reaching an all-time high of $1.46 billion. Despite that institutional demand, XRP corrected to $1.3783 on Wednesday, losing about 4% over the previous 24 hours. The divergence highlights that ETF flows are not the primary price driver; spot market activity and whale positioning remain more influential.
The on-chain picture shows that millionaire wallets holding between 1 million and 10 million XRP accumulated nearly 500 million tokens immediately before last week’s surge. That buying helped break a 608-day downtrend during which XRP fell 54.47% from near $3.01 to a cycle low of $0.9939. The breakout pushed XRP as high as $1.5219 and drove the daily RSI into overbought territory, prompting retail investors who had been underwater to sell into strength.
Separate fund disclosures add another layer of friction. REX-Osprey’s XRP ETF held 40.25% of its assets in the CoinShares Physical XRP ETP on Aug. 24, routing $22.87 million of a $56.68 million portfolio through another listed product. With XRPR’s 0.75% expense ratio and CoinShares’ 1.50% annual fee, shareholders indirectly face an estimated 0.60375 percentage-point annual drag before trading costs. The structure also introduces tracking differences because part of the exposure is held through a Jersey-domiciled debt security listed on European exchanges, adding issuer, custody and venue risk even though CoinShares states its product is 100% physically backed. Combined with heavy spot selling, these costs help explain why strong ETF demand has not translated into higher XRP prices.
