XRP ETFs Put In $1.79 Billion but Hold $1.66 Billion. Why Are They the Only Major Crypto ETFs Underwater?

For XRP funds to match investors’ initial contributions, XRP needs to climb about 8% to roughly $1.62, assuming their XRP holdings remain unchanged. Unfortunately, average XRP holders over the past year are also seeing losses.

Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana ETFs All Hold More Than Their Inflows

The other three major fund groups are thriving, as SoSoValue reports:

Timing helps explain much of the performance gap. Spot Bitcoin ETFs started trading in January 2024, when Bitcoin was priced below $50,000. This means early investors bought at much lower prices than today’s price of approximately $85,000 as of October 4. Conversely, XRP fund investors began buying when prices were already above $2 and have had less than a year to see returns.

Even smaller funds reflect this issue. Funds holding Hedera (CRYPTO: HBAR) have faced a similar situation—taking in $114 million yet now holding only $80 million, a decline of about 30%. However, since Hedera’s funds are much smaller, XRP remains the only major crypto fund group in this position.

XRP ETF Buyers Kept Adding Money Below Cost

Interestingly, the shortfall doesn’t stem from investors selling their holdings. XRP funds received $121 million in September and have posted net inflows for 11 consecutive weeks. Bitwise leads with total net inflows of about $676 million, followed by Franklin Templeton at $501 million and Canary at $489 million.

Buying activity has also continued into October, with XRP funds seeing $4 million on September 28 and another $4 million on October 1—more than the $3 million that exited on October 2. This left a net inflow of about $5 million for that week, following a surge of $75 million in just four days the previous week.

However, ongoing inflows are not keeping pace with initial expectations. JPMorgan previously projected that the funds might see up to $8 billion in first-year inflows, but they’ve attracted less than a quarter of that amount. Such modest inflows cannot offset the decline in XRP’s price since the funds launched.

Why Are XRP ETFs the Only Major Crypto Funds Underwater?

So why are XRP ETFs facing this unique challenge? Simply put, their value dropped after most investments came in—not because of withdrawals. These funds started with XRP priced above $2, but now it’s trading at $1.50.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin funds began their buying strategies much earlier at significantly lower prices. As a result, the current value of XRP ETFs is closely tied to XRP’s price; small weekly inflows cannot close the $133 million gap created by the drop.

To recover, XRP needs to rise above $1.62. Crossing this threshold would bring the average XRP ETF investment back to break-even, allowing the funds to join Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana in positive territory. On the flip side, if XRP continues to slide while weekly inflows remain low, each additional dollar invested only deepens the hole, widening the gap between current value and what investors initially paid.

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