On Oct. 7, XRP changed hands around $1.43, marking a 5.46% drop over a 24-hour window. Market data provider Maketo reported that five tracked US spot XRP ETFs held roughly $1.7 billion as of the previous day’s market close.
While this total represents accumulated exposure, recent net flows were considerably lower, and the ETF sector experienced both withdrawals and additions. Franklin and Canary saw outflows on Oct. 6, even though the five funds registered positive net inflows overall. Furthermore, the drop in exchange-wallet balances often cited to back a supply-squeeze narrative actually incorporates a storage migration that kept coins under the control of the same exchange.
ETF inflows and wallet withdrawals tell a smaller story
Maketo estimated that its five monitored funds held $1.7 billion—equal to about 1.13 billion XRP—at the close on Oct. 6. The tracker values these coins using its own daily closing price and estimates holdings when specific issuers do not report coin counts.
Flow figures for that same date indicated $3.14 million in aggregate net inflows. Over the preceding week, the total reached approximately $3.9 million, alongside $112 million across the past month, with both weekly and monthly metrics covering the tracker’s trailing windows.
A rounded daily breakdown showed roughly $11 million flowing into Bitwise’s fund, contrasted with about $4.1 million leaving Franklin and roughly $3.3 million exiting Canary. Grayscale and 21Shares remained flat. Because Bitwise’s gains surpassed withdrawals elsewhere, the sector finished the day in positive territory.
Data from Canary’s shares-outstanding table reveals a share count shifting from 23.35 million on Oct. 5 to 23.14 million on Oct. 6, aligning with net redemptions. This points to a contraction in exposure for that particular fund, though it does not identify individual investors or reveal where the underlying XRP changed hands.
Additionally, a clear line exists between investors selling ETF shares on an open exchange and shares being officially redeemed from the fund. Individual shares trade on the open market, whereas authorized participants manage creation and redemption units.
The exchange landscape is similarly divided. Ledger data tracker XRP Insights recorded 21.98 billion XRP across 699 publicly identified wallets spanning 24 exchanges in an Oct. 7 reading at 08:00 UTC. Because this encompasses cold storage and reserves backing wrapped tokens, the figure exceeds readily tradable inventory.
Selling can additionally take place inside an exchange’s pooled customer accounts. From an accounting perspective, transferring XRP from one user’s ownership to another does not necessarily change the exchange’s total ledger balance, allowing participants to trade existing exchange inventory while coins are simultaneously withdrawn.
When tracking the exact same wallets over a seven-day window, the monitoring service noted a decrease of 26.5 million XRP, or 0.13%. Balances attributed to Binance dropped by 33 million XRP, whereas Upbit holdings grew by 11.5 million.
Looking at a monthly scale, the reduction appeared much larger at 1.63 billion XRP. However, XRP Insights tied the vast majority of that drop to a storage migration by Uphold into newer wallets located outside its monitored set. When excluding Uphold, the decline narrowed to 75 million XRP, or 0.54%.
Even this adjusted metric can be influenced by transfers into untracked wallets, meaning a recorded withdrawal might simply indicate an exchange shifting its internal storage rather than customers removing coins.
According to ledger tracking data from XRP Insights, Ripple released 1 billion XRP and re-escrowed 700 million on its Oct. 1 cycle. The remaining 300 million left escrow, though this change in availability does not confirm that the coins were sold.
Heavy futures trading leaves price leadership unresolved
CoinGlass data from Oct. 7 at 14:29 UTC showed $3.97 billion in XRP futures turnover over a 24-hour period, compared to $801.56 million in covered spot turnover, with open interest sitting at $3.35 billion. The recorded XRP price stood at $1.4308, down 5.46% over the same rolling day.
Futures volume roughly quintupled the covered spot figure. Because gross turnover measures trading activity rather than net bearish exposure, it remains unclear whether futures sellers drove the price action or reacted to it.
Open interest encompasses both open long and short positions. Determining whether figures reflect fresh positioning or a leveraged unwind requires evaluating price, funding, and liquidation data in tandem; a drop in open interest on its own does not prove forced liquidations occurred.
Broader market conditions also played a role. In CryptoSlate’s Oct. 7 snapshot, Bitcoin traded near $83,100, trailing its reference close of $85,557.56 from Oct. 6.
While dated redemptions pinpoint instances where ETF exposure shrank, the identities of the primary XRP sellers remain unknown. Key developments to watch next include stronger net inflows into ETFs, exchange movements verified beyond internal storage migrations, and derivatives metrics illustrating how positions shifted during the downturn.