XRP's Mixed Tape: Exchange Balances Swell While ETF Demand Stays Tepid

Two data sets landed this week that pull in opposite directions for XRP holders, and neither one settles the question of where the token is headed. On-chain tracking shows exchange-linked wallets accumulating supply, while the fledgling US spot ETF complex continues to bleed modest amounts. XRP itself changed hands at 1.31 USD.

The wallet data, reported by XRP Insights, covers the same 699 exchange-associated addresses across 24 trading venues. Between Tuesday and Thursday, those wallets took in a net 83.94 million XRP, lifting their combined holdings to 22.06 billion tokens. An earlier read had put the inflow window as running from Monday to Thursday.

That headline figure deserves context before anyone treats it as a sell signal. Exchange balances are custody holdings, not offers sitting on order books. A transfer into an exchange is not a completed trade, and movements between tracked and untracked addresses can distort the totals. The statistic describes shifts within a fixed set of addresses, not the full universe of XRP held in exchange environments. It is a signal worth watching — not proof that a wave of selling is imminent.

Fund Flows Offer Little Counterweight

The ETF picture is no more decisive. US spot XRP products lost a net 2.4734 million USD on the most recent session, with the entire outflow attributed to Canary Capital's XRPC. The prior Thursday had also seen money leave the funds. Friday's published figures were still incomplete, with only two of five funds having reported at the time, and data services put Thursday's estimated net outflow at 105,000 USD.

Those estimates vary by methodology and by which funds are counted, so restraint is warranted. Taken together, the flows point to muted appetite rather than a strong ETF-driven catalyst in either direction. Neither the ETF numbers nor the wallet statistics amount to a complete account of XRP trading, and neither measures actual network usage.

Ripple Builds Out the Rails

On the development side, Ripple and Privy — a Stripe-owned company — announced a partnership on Wednesday that embeds XRP Ledger wallets into Privy's developer platform. Applications will be able to create and manage wallets and authorize transactions involving XRP, RLUSD and other assets on the ledger. Media reports suggest the integration could also support payments executed by AI agents.

That widens the technical surface area for XRP inside embedded applications. It does not, however, translate into demand that has already materialized. Because the integration supports multiple tokens, there is no basis for concluding that every payment routed through it will generate XRP buying. A possible use case is not the same as realized demand.

Three Lenses, Not One Verdict

What investors face is a pair of parallel developments rather than a single verdict: infrastructure access is expanding while product demand looks soft. The Privy partnership concerns how applications reach the ledger; the wallet data concerns how existing tokens are distributed. Higher exchange balances do not prove that sales are coming, and a new integration does not prove that purchases are. Keeping product flows, custody balances and genuine usage in separate columns is the only way to avoid reading infrastructure headlines or wallet movements as a clean buy or sell signal.