XRP Investment Case Highlights Structural Risk Despite Record ETF Inflows
The XRP investment case has been presented by asset manager 21Shares, highlighting four key pillars that justify holding the token. These pillars include regulatory clarity, institutional access, measurable utility, and fixed supply. Regulatory clarity was achieved with the end of Ripple's SEC battle in August 2025.
Since then, seven U.S. spot XRP ETFs have launched, drawing over $1.3 billion in their first month alone. Institutional interest is evident, with Goldman Sachs being one of the largest XRP ETF holders, and Citadel building a significant bullish position.
The utility pillar shows the XRP Ledger settling close to half a trillion dollars in on-chain value over the past 12 months. Ripple's RLUSD stablecoin has grown from $72 million to around $1.6 billion since launch, with tokenized real-world assets nearing $4 billion.
However, 21Shares flags a structural risk: institutions can settle on the XRP Ledger without holding XRP for long periods, which could mean XRPL activity scales while token demand lags. This is already visible in RLUSD supply overtaking Ethereum, and Mastercard launching 24/7 settlement using RLUSD on XRPL.