XRP News Today: Regulators and Whales Align as XRP ETFs Enter the Institutional Spotlight

XRP has seen a mixed response in late 2025, with its price falling 1.376% to $2.78 over the last 24 hours amid growing institutional interest driven by regulatory clarity. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reclassified XRP as a digital commodity in August 2025, significantly reducing regulatory uncertainty and facilitating a surge in institutional investment. This shift encouraged firms such as Amplify Investments, a U.S. asset manager with $12.6 billion in assets, to file for an XRP Monthly Option Income ETF with the SEC, seeking approval for a November 2025 launch. This ETF would allocate 80% to XRP instruments and 20% to Treasuries or cash-like assets, reflecting broader institutional adoption of cryptocurrencies in a post-July 2025 regulatory environment [1].

Institutional adoption has been further underscored by Gumi Inc., a major Tokyo-based technology firm, which announced a $17 million XRP investment between September 2025 and February 2026. This move, supported by SBI Holdings, is expected to enhance the use of XRP in cross-border payments via RippleNet and could boost market confidence among Japanese corporations [1]. Meanwhile, the blockchain underpinning XRP—XRPL—reported a record RWA (Real-World Asset) market cap of $131.6 million as of the second quarter of 2025, fueled by high-profile tokenized asset launches including Ondo’s OUSG treasury fund and Guggenheim’s digital commercial paper [1].

Whale investors have also demonstrated confidence in XRP, with Santiment data showing that whale addresses holding between 10 million and 100 million XRP added 340 million coins in just two weeks. This accumulation highlights growing institutional interest in the asset, despite price volatility and reduced short-term network engagement metrics. Analysts have noted a significant decline in XRP’s price correlation with Bitcoin, dropping from 0.81 in July 2024 to 0.58 by August 2025, suggesting that XRP is increasingly moving independently of broader cryptocurrency market trends [1].

Steven McClurg, CEO of Canary Capital, has highlighted XRP’s unique position in institutional finance, noting that it ranks second only to Bitcoin in recognition among major Wall Street financial institutions. McClurg also predicted that XRP’s anticipated spot ETF could attract $5 billion in inflows within its first month, potentially surpassing the launch figures of Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs. This projection underscores XRP’s growing appeal in institutional investment portfolios and its potential to reshape the cryptocurrency ETF landscape [1].

Despite recent price declines and whale selling activity—such as a $6 billion outflow from large wallets since mid-July—XRP’s institutional adoption appears robust. This has led to discussions around the potential for exchange-traded products (ETPs) tied to XRP, with industry analysts offering divergent views on the implications of such approvals. Meanwhile, XRP’s market presence is being further bolstered by its role in stablecoin ecosystems, with Ripple’s RLUSD achieving a market cap of $65.9 million on the XRPL at the end of Q2 2025 [1].

In parallel, capital is increasingly shifting toward Ethereum Layer 2 (L2) solutions, such as Arbitrum and Optimism, driven by deflationary mechanics, high staking yields, and gas efficiency gains. Ethereum L2s processed over 60% of Ethereum’s total transaction volume in Q2 2025, with Ethereum ETFs attracting $13.3 billion in inflows, surpassing Bitcoin. This trend reflects a broader reallocation of capital from XRP to high-reward ETH L2s, driven by Ethereum’s structural advantages and growing institutional adoption [2].

Source:

[1] XRP Price Drops 1.376% Amid Institutional Investment Surge (https://www.ainvest.com/news/xrp-price-drops-1-376-institutional-investment-surge-2509/)

[2] XRP's Volatility and the ETH L2 Surge (https://www.ainvest.com/news/xrp-volatility-eth-l2-surge-navigating-reallocative-opportunities-2025-2508/)