Grayscale XRP Trust Sees Significant Holdings Drop, Raising Concerns
Grayscale’s XRP Trust ETF offloaded 103.41 million XRP tokens, valued at $180.78 million, during the first half of 2026. This substantial sale reduced the trust’s holdings from 122.23 million XRP at the close of 2025 to 55.04 million by June 30, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The significant decrease signals a worrying trend in institutional adoption of the digital asset.
The news emerged as XRP traded around $1.02 against the U.S. dollar, hovering precariously close to a key support level at $1, following a 0.2% dip overnight. Daily trading volume stood at $732 million, an increase from the previous day’s $670 million.
Data from CoinGlass indicates that XRP ETF net inflows have totaled $1.42 billion since their launch in November 2024. While this represents a healthy overall figure, it underscores the magnitude of Grayscale’s ETF selloff.
The SEC filing also revealed that the value of the trust’s XRP holdings plummeted from $223.36 million at the end of 2025 to $57.41 million on June 30. Grayscale reported a realized loss of $34.16 million on XRP sold to facilitate share redemptions, in addition to an unrealized loss of $17.47 million on its remaining XRP position.
During the six-month period, the trust created an additional 36.27 million XRP, valued at $66.58 million. However, these additions were insufficient to offset the redemptions. The number of outstanding shares decreased from 6.30 million at the end of 2025 to 2.84 million by June 30.
The trust repurchased 5.33 million shares and sold 1.87 million shares within the same timeframe. It also recorded a realized loss of $39,000 on XRP sold to cover operational expenses.
Authorized participants are responsible for the creation and redemption of shares in the trust. The filing further attributes the reduction in XRP holdings per share to periodic XRP withdrawals utilized to cover the sponsor’s fee.
XRP Price Performance and Market Dynamics
XRP experienced a significant decline, falling from $1.84 on January 1 to $1.05 by June 30, a drop exceeding 40%. On August 7, the token traded within a narrow range of $1.015 to $1.041, positioning it near the lower end of its 52-week trading band, which spans from $1.0095 to $3.3818.
According to CoinGlass data, weekly inflows into XRP exchange-traded funds saw a sharp decrease to approximately $1 million from $14.9 million the prior week. However, daily flows showed a rebound, reaching roughly $3.5 million on August 6. Over the preceding month, XRP had declined by approximately 10%, and over the seven days ending Friday, it was down about 5.5%.
In regulatory news, the U.S. Senate has postponed its consideration of the cryptocurrency market-structure legislation, known as the CLARITY Act, until at least September. Factors such as regulatory developments, institutional demand, and Ripple’s XRP holdings are identified as potential influences on XRP’s price trajectory.
Ripple executed a release of 1 billion XRP from escrow on August 1, as part of its scheduled monthly unlock. Historically, the company has returned a substantial portion of these monthly releases back to escrow, rather than circulating the entire amount.
The SEC filing details XRP sales for share redemptions and expenses, alongside changes in the trust’s XRP holdings and share count. Redemptions can necessitate token sales to meet investor withdrawal requests, with authorized participants managing the creation and redemption of shares.
The trust’s XRP holdings were more than halved between the end of 2025 and June 30, with the value of these holdings decreasing from $223.36 million to $57.41 million. The filing also indicates that XRP creations during this period were outpaced by XRP sales for redemptions.
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