Crypto investors refuse to sell XRP ETF tokens despite a 25% price crash
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Crypto investors refuse to sell XRP ETF tokens despite a 25% price crash

XRP traded roughly a quarter below XRP Insights’ acquisition estimate, while three sessions showed a small, concentrated net holdings reduction.

Quick Take

  1. XRP traded roughly a quarter below XRP Insights’ modeled fund acquisition cost, which does not measure shareholder returns.
  2. XRP Insights’ flow cohort lost 2.96 million XRP over Oct. 26-28, with the decline concentrated at Bitwise.
  3. Aligned issuer coin counts, share counts and creation records will distinguish renewed net expansion from a broader retreat.

XRP traded near $1.29 on Oct. 29, roughly a quarter below the estimated acquisition cost of the exposure accumulated in US-listed XRP funds.

Yet the latest settled data show only a small, concentrated decline in the group of funds with published flows.

Data tracker XRP Insights puts modeled acquisition cost at about $1.71, with its flow series recording a net reduction of about 2.96 million XRP over Oct. 26-28. Comparing Oct. 23 and Oct. 28 balances for the same group puts the decline at roughly 0.26%, leaving most existing exposure in place.

A large existing ETF portfolio shows how much exposure the channel has accumulated, but the cost estimate alone says little about whether that expansion will resume.

In its Oct. 28 snapshot, XRP Insights estimated approximately 1.17 billion XRP of exposure across six products, rising to 1.19 billion when the XRP sleeve of the diversified Bitwise 10 Crypto Index Fund (BITW) was included.

REX Osprey's XRP Fund (XRPR’s) Oct. 28 holdings included 19,885,382 direct XRP alongside 362,750 CoinShares Physical XRP securities. The securities are not individual tokens, explaining why a tracker’s XRP-equivalent exposure can exceed the coins directly held by the US fund.

The flow calculation includes BITW but excludes Grayscale’s GXRP because of a historical data-capture gap. The 0.26% decline compares the same measured cohort from Oct. 23 through Oct. 28, excluding GXRP at both ends.

Large creations and redemptions could offset each other within a net figure, and not all three sessions were negative: Oct. 28 added about 174,140 XRP, partially reversing the earlier decline.

In the tracker’s fund-level history, Bitwise’s fund moved from about 416.61 million XRP on Oct. 23 to 413.82 million on Oct. 26, then stayed flat through Oct. 28. Franklin Templeton and 21Shares were flat across those three sessions.

This follows reports on inventory and new flows and an Oct. 19 report on the ended weekly inflow streak, which add depth to the movement.

What the $1.71 estimate measures

XRP Insights estimates acquisition cost at roughly $1.707 per XRP for the six-product portfolio and $1.712 including BITW. Against the XRP price of roughly $1.29 displayed on Oct. 29, those figures imply gaps of about 24.4% and 24.6%, respectively.

The model starts with each fund’s first holdings observation in its dataset, beginning in December 2025. It values that opening balance at the day’s XRP price, adds subsequent increases at each day’s reference price, and removes decreases at the portfolio’s average cost.

A reduction lowers the modeled cost total without changing the average acquisition price for the remaining tokens.

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Funds that already existed when the dataset began enter at the starting observation’s price, and some historical holdings observations were themselves reconstructed. These assumptions limit how precisely the estimate can describe the original purchases.

Replacing its stored daily prices with prices implied by fund net asset values raises the combined estimate to $1.7458, about 2% higher. XRP at $1.29 would still sit about 26% below that alternative.

The model does not follow shareholders’ trades. An investor may have bought fund shares long after the underlying XRP entered the portfolio, at a different share price and at a premium or discount to net asset value. The estimate also excludes fees and those premiums or discounts.

Consequently, the estimates cannot establish that ETF shareholders are collectively down 25%, nor does $1.71 define a price floor or contractual liquidation threshold.

XRP at $1.29 on Oct. 29 versus $1.7120 modeled cost including BITW, 24.6% below; 1.19 billion XRP exposure at Oct. 28 and a separate flow cohort down 0.26% from Oct. 23 to 28.
XRP traded 24.6% below modeled ETF cost as matched holdings slipped just 0.26% through Oct. 28.

XRP ETF creations will show whether demand returns

Bitwise’s prospectus describes 10,000-share baskets handled by authorized participants, the firms able to transact directly with the fund.

A cash creation can require the fund to acquire XRP, while an in-kind creation delivers XRP to the fund, which does not prove a spot-market purchase at that moment.

A stronger signal of net expansion would be sustained increases in both XRP holdings and shares outstanding across several issuers, using matching observation dates.

Creation records would help distinguish cash-funded acquisitions from in-kind transfers, while separating fees and index adjustments would make the net additions easier to interpret.

Persistent reductions across multiple funds, accompanied by falling share counts and redemption activity, would weaken the current picture of a largely retained portfolio.

A larger dollar decline in assets alone would be insufficient because XRP’s price can change portfolio value without coins leaving.

Through Oct. 28, the measured reduction was small and concentrated, and the final session was positive. Further settled issuer observations will show whether net holdings resume expanding or the reduction broadens.

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Related Asset XRP #5 XRP $1.27 24-hour change: down 5.18% Loading price history… 24H Down 5.18% 7D Down 2.86% 30D Down 15.27% Related Company Bitwise The first cryptocurrency index fund Related Company Grayscale A trusted authority on digital currency investing Related Company Canary Capital Aa digital asset-focused investment firm Related Company Franklin Templeton Global asset manager Related Company 21shares Issuer of crypto ETPs Related Company CoinShares Digital asset investing platform