21Shares Builds Case for XRP Around Utility, ETFs, and Fixed Supply
Ripple Labs and its XRP investors have been given new hope by crypto asset manager 21Shares, which has published an investment case for XRP. The firm's strategist Maximiliaan Michielsen identified four key pillars to assess XRP's prospects: regulatory clarity, institutional access, measurable utility, and fixed supply.
The regulatory clarity pillar is anchored by the joint dismissal of appeals in August 2025, effectively ending nearly five years of litigation between Ripple Labs and the SEC. The final judgment imposed a $125 million civil penalty and an injunction barring Ripple from violating registration provisions.
21Shares highlighted seven U.S. spot XRP exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that began trading in November 2025, with REX-Osprey's XRPR launching as the first U.S.-listed ETF offering spot XRP exposure on September 18, 2025. The analysis noted that these products collected $1.3 billion during their first month and recorded a 55-day inflow streak.
The firm also estimated that XRPL moved close to half a trillion dollars in on-chain value over 12 months, with RLUSD near $1.6 billion and tokenized assets around $4 billion. Ledger upgrades give institutions more control for issuing and managing tokenized assets on XRPL, allowing issuers to place compliance and asset-management controls directly within the token structure.
XRP's supply framework provides the final pillar, with all 100 billion tokens created when the ledger launched. The public XRP Ledger uses XRP for transaction costs and liquidity, while validated transactions destroy a small amount. 21Shares estimates that more than 14 million XRP has been burned, and scheduled escrow releases can alter circulating supply without increasing the original cap.
A central risk lies in how network activity affects the native asset over time. Institutions can use XRPL while holding XRP only briefly, so higher settlement volume does not automatically create sustained token demand. 21Shares therefore treats XRP as a position on tokenized settlement reaching scale while acknowledging that adoption could grow faster than value accrues to XRP holders.