XRP’s Institutional Crosscurrents: Wall Street Retreats as Europe and Japan Charge Forward

Goldman Sachs exits XRP ETF, Intesa Sanpaolo invests $18M, Ripple secures EU license, yet XRP lags near $1.10 amid mixed institutional signals.

The narrative around XRP has rarely been more fractured. While one of the world’s most prestigious investment banks has quietly exited the token entirely, a major European lender has doubled down — and Ripple itself just secured a regulatory green light that unlocks the entire European Economic Area. Yet the cryptocurrency’s price remains stubbornly anchored near $1.10, unable to break free from a trading range that has held for weeks.

Goldman’s About-Face Opens a New Chapter

In March 2026, Goldman Sachs disclosed a $153.8 million position in XRP ETFs, making it the largest institutional holder of such funds in the United States. The revelation was hailed as a watershed for mainstream acceptance. But the bank’s next quarterly filing, submitted to the SEC in mid-May, told a dramatically different story: the entire XRP position had been liquidated. Goldman also shed its Solana ETF holdings, trimmed its Bitcoin and Ethereum ETF exposure by roughly 70% on the latter, and reallocated capital into crypto equities instead. Its stakes in companies such as Circle, Galaxy Digital, and Coinbase surged by as much as 249%.

Importantly, the filing is a snapshot of holdings at quarter-end — not a real-time strategy update — and the SEC notes it has not necessarily reviewed the submission. Still, the scale of the pivot has rattled parts of the XRP community.

Intesa Sanpaolo Bets Opposite

Against this backdrop, Italy’s largest bank, Intesa Sanpaolo, invested $18 million in XRP through the Grayscale XRP Trust. The move lifted the bank’s total crypto exposure to $235 million, more than double its level three months earlier. The contrast could hardly be starker: one Wall Street heavyweight retreats, while a European institution uses the exact same regulated vehicle to build exposure.

Ripple’s MiCA License: A Milestone Met with Indifference

On July 6, Ripple received full authorisation as a crypto service provider from Luxembourg’s CSSF under the MiCA framework. The license grants access to all 30 countries of the European Economic Area, removing a significant regulatory hurdle for Ripple’s payment solutions in Europe. Yet the market greeted the news with a classic sell-the-news reaction: XRP slipped roughly 2% on the day of the announcement, though it still recorded a weekly gain of nearly 5% as the positive run-up had already been priced in.

Japanese Companies Park XRP in Balance Sheets

The weakness of the yen is driving an unusual strategy among Japanese firms, who are increasingly allocating both Bitcoin and XRP to corporate treasuries. SBI VC Trade, the crypto arm of the SBI Group, reported a sharp uptick in such diversification activity on July 7 and 8. The platform’s total accounts have surpassed 2 million in July 2026 — nearly double the level from a year earlier — bolstered by the merger with BitPoint Japan in April. Some companies are even integrating XRP directly into shareholder reward programmes.

ETF Inflows Keep Flowing, Despite the Price Stalemate

The Bitwise XRP Spot ETF crossed $500 million in cumulative net inflows on July 7, capturing a 33% share of the $1.49 billion that has flowed into XRP spot ETFs since their launch. Overall, the ETF sector has posted positive net inflows for eight consecutive weeks, and net assets now stand at roughly $1.02 billion, representing about 1.46% of XRP’s total market capitalisation. July 7 did bring the first day of zero activity for some funds since late June, but Bitwise reported no monthly net outflows since the start of the year.

Real-World Tokenization Gains Traction

Beyond the ETF story, the XRP Ledger is quietly building a second pillar: tokenised real-world assets. More than $4 billion in such assets now circulate across over 500 products on the blockchain. Treasury repurchase settlements involving JPMorgan, Ondo, and Mastercard have been completed in roughly four seconds. Ripple is also testing cross-border blockchain payments with South Korea’s K-Bank in corridors including Thailand and the United Arab Emirates.

Technical Picture: Stuck Between Resistance and Support

Despite the flurry of positive fundamentals, XRP’s price chart tells a story of frustration. At $1.09, the token sits about 8% below its 50-day moving average of $1.19 and more than 25% below the 200-day average of $1.47. It remains over 70% off the July 2025 high of $3.65. The relative strength index stands at 43.7, suggesting neutral-to-slightly-bearish momentum without dipping into oversold territory.

Resistance is firmly pegged at $1.17, coinciding with the 50-day average, while support lies at $1.02 and $0.84. A fresh 52-week low of $1.01 was touched just two weeks ago. On the futures market, open interest has collapsed 78% from the July 2025 peak to around $2.40 billion, reducing the risk of forced liquidations. Meanwhile, the cumulative volume delta has risen by $406 million since May, signalling that long-term holders are absorbing selling from leveraged traders while spot demand remains steady.

On exchanges, XRP reserves at Binance have fallen 20% since November 2024, pushing the Binance scarcity index to a 24-month high of 0.77 — a metric that typically suggests reduced selling pressure.

A Market Waiting for a Catalyst

The collision of signals — a regulatory triumph, growing corporate adoption abroad, steady ETF inflows, and a Wall Street exit — has left XRP in a zone of indecision. Bulls need a daily close above $1.18–$1.20 to break the pattern. Until then, the token seems destined to oscillate between the $1.00–$1.10 floor and the $1.15–$1.17 ceiling, with the market digesting two very different institutional stories at once.