XRP ETF Posts Year’s Strongest Debut With $58 Million in First-Day Trading

Canary Capital’s spot XRP ETF (XRPC) opened with $58 million in first-day trading volume, the strongest debut of any exchange-traded fund launched this year, even as crypto prices extended losses.

Days after filing its pre-launch registration with the SEC, the fund began trading and immediately attracted heavier-than-expected flows and strong early interest.

The benchmark figure was first noted by Bloomberg senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas, who tweeted Thursday, citing Bloomberg data, that Canary’s ETF “barely” edged out Bitwise’s Solana staking ETF, which drew $57 million when it listed late last month.

The scale of the flows was unexpected. Balchunas initially projected around $17 million for XRPC, yet the fund cleared that within half an hour and closed the session as the year’s top debut. 

Canary’s XRP ETF closed its debut session at $24.55, down 7.8% after a volatile first day, according to Barchart data.

XRPC’s debut performance came as broader crypto markets spent the day in the red, down 3.5% in market capitalization terms to $3.43 trillion, per CoinGecko data.

Bitcoin slipped 3.4% percent and Ether followed lower at 6.7%. Solana dropped about 5% on the day to $145, giving back part of its rally tied to BSOL’s earlier launch.

Analysts say the scale of the debut points to strong demand for crypto exposure outside the established Bitcoin and Ether complex.

“XRP has one of the strongest and most persistent retail communities in crypto, a level of fandom that’s difficult to quantify but has historically translated into outsized trading activity whenever new products launch,” Min Jung, senior analyst at quantitative trading firm Presto, told Decrypt.

XRP remains “one of the best-known crypto assets among everyday investors, which naturally boosts awareness and day-one participation,” Jung said. “On the institutional side, there has been clear pent-up demand for compliant XRP exposure following Ripple’s regulatory wins and the growing consensus around XRP’s non-security status,” he added.

Professional investors who “previously sat on the sidelines are now comfortable accessing the asset through a regulated wrapper,” with that shift likely helping “amplify” the debut activity, Jung noted.

Still, Thursday’s XRPC session “appears to be a mix“ despite “organic demand” given “XRP’s retail footprint and renewed institutional comfort.”

A “meaningful portion” of the flow also came “from liquidity providers managing creation/redemption baskets and traders capturing short-lived premiums or discounts versus spot,” Jung said.

The key test would be for what follows beyond how XRPC became a “clean entry point” for investors, filling “a pool of demand” that they couldn’t participate in before, Lawrence Samantha, CEO of crypto investment app NOBI, told Decrypt.

If XRPC “continues to see steady inflows and creations,” it could be a “strong sign” for how “institutions are treating this as a long-term allocation,” Samantha said, adding that should the flows cool off, it could mean “market-makers might be what dominated the early volume.”