XRP Draws $1.44 Billion in ETF Inflows as Ripple Sets Sights on $1 Billion Revenue Target — Yet the Token Keeps Falling

Record $1.44B in XRP ETF inflows fail to lift price, which is down 34% YTD. Ripple pivots to fintech infrastructure, targets $1B revenue by 2026 excluding XRP holdings.

Institutional money is pouring into XRP at a record pace, but the token itself has barely budged. Spot-based exchange-traded funds tracking the digital asset have now posted positive net inflows for six consecutive weeks, the latest tranche adding around $11 million. Total net inflows have swelled to $1.44 billion, pushing assets under management in this segment close to the $1 billion threshold.

Yet XRP’s spot price tells a very different story. The token has shed roughly 34% of its value since the start of the year, currently changing hands near $1.23. Earlier this week it touched a fresh yearly low of $1.05 before staging a modest bounce. The 50-day moving average now sits at $1.32, a level that has emerged as immediate resistance. Until that barrier is cleared, the prevailing trend remains firmly bearish.

The disconnect between ETF demand and spot performance has left traders scratching their heads. While the much larger Bitcoin and Ethereum fund complexes have recently shown signs of fatigue, XRP-linked products continue to attract fresh capital. Some strategists interpret this as a rotation into alternative crypto assets by professional investors who prefer regulated vehicles over self-custody.

Meanwhile, Ripple — the company most closely associated with XRP — is taking steps to decouple its own fortunes from the token’s price. CEO Brad Garlinghouse has set a revenue target of $1 billion by the end of 2026, explicitly excluding the firm’s substantial XRP holdings from that goal. The growth is expected to come from a trio of service lines: cross-border payments, stablecoin operations, and digital asset custody.

Historically, Ripple’s corporate performance and XRP’s market swings have been tightly intertwined. That linkage is now being deliberately severed. The company is positioning itself as a pure-play fintech infrastructure provider, not a token promoter. Its expansion is being driven by international markets, as the lack of clear crypto regulation inside the U.S. has not hindered its overseas push.

To flesh out its infrastructure pitch, Ripple recently unveiled a developer toolkit tailored for artificial intelligence applications on the XRP Ledger. The package lets programmers build automated payment systems that settle in three to five seconds, using either XRP or the firm’s own stablecoin, RLUSD. Whether these tools will translate into meaningful recurring revenue remains an open question — management has offered no specific projections.

The broader network continues to hum along regardless of the price slump. The XRP blockchain has consistently processed over one million transactions per day during the past month, with payment volumes holding up well. That operational resilience has not gone unnoticed, especially given the persistent price weakness.

The tension at the heart of today’s market is clear: institutional appetite for regulated XRP exposure is running hot, but that demand has yet to filter through to the spot price. Ripple’s strategic pivot toward fee-based services could eventually shield the company from token volatility, but it does little to boost near-term demand for XRP itself. Until the token breaks above $1.32, the bearish grip on price action is likely to hold.