Five major US spot XRP ETFs held a combined $746.1 million paper loss on their XRP at the end of June, yet investors kept adding money. First-half share creations beat redemptions by $320.8 million, with Bitwise, Canary Capital and Franklin Templeton driving the demand that offset heavy outflows at Grayscale and 21Shares.
Five US spot XRP products from Bitwise, Canary Capital, Franklin Templeton, 21Shares and Grayscale held XRP with a combined fair value $746.1 million below their accounting cost at the end of June. Investors kept buying anyway.
According to SEC filings, the five funds recorded roughly $629.9 million in primary-market share creations against $309.1 million in redemptions during the first half of the year. That left net capital activity positive by about $320.8 million, even as the funds' combined XRP holdings sat 44.1% below their $1.7 billion accounting cost.
Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart, in an Aug. 31 post, called the demand "surprisingly resilient", putting cumulative net inflows across the asset class at $1.8 billion.
Three funds absorbed the losses at the other two
Fair value across the five funds totaled $947.3 million as of June 30, versus the nearly $1.7 billion those funds had originally paid. That decline alone would normally signal selling, since a fund holding an asset at less than half its recorded value gives shareholders every incentive to redeem and reallocate elsewhere. New creations, however, kept arriving faster than shares left.
Bitwise, Canary and Franklin recorded $537.9 million in first-half creations against just $53.3 million in redemptions, a net inflow of roughly $484.5 million, even while their combined XRP holdings traded 42.9% below accounting cost. Grayscale and 21Shares, by contrast, recorded $92.1 million in creations against $255.8 million in redemptions, a net outflow of $163.7 million that accounted for roughly 83% of all redemptions across the five-fund sample.
The aggregate figure reads as resilient because inflows at three funds overwhelmed outflows at the other two. Some of that apparent resilience may also reflect rotation, with investors exiting higher-fee or legacy products while entering funds they consider better structured.
What breakeven would take
The five funds held roughly 906.8 million XRP at June 30, implying a rough cost-basis breakeven near $1.87 per token. XRP currently trades around $1.38, meaning the sample would remain underwater if marked at today's price.
A bull case has XRP climbing back toward the $1.50 to $1.90 range, which would erase most of the accounting gap without requiring a fresh cycle high. A bear case has XRP sliding toward $0.75 to $0.90, which would push the five-fund sample 52% to 60% below cost. In that scenario, the test shifts to whether the redemption pattern already visible at Grayscale and 21Shares spreads across the rest of the complex.
Cumulative XRP ETF inflows reached nearly $1.6 billion by Aug. 24 and $1.64 billion by Aug. 29, before Seyffart's $1.8 billion figure at month's end. That trajectory shows June 30 captured a moment in a longer pattern, well short of its end.
Source: CryptoSlate
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