How much XRP do institutions hold, and how much is actually put to work?

The full answer

How much XRP do the US spot ETFs hold?

Bitwise, Franklin and Grayscale each report their XRP in quarterly 10-Q filings with the SEC. Bitwise’s filing for the quarter ended June 30, 2026 shows a closing balance of 286,838,445.9126 XRP, worth $298.7 million at the $1.04 price the fund used that day [1]. Franklin’s filing shows 225,368,820.7314 XRP on June 30, 2026, up from 159,659,740 on March 31 [2]. Grayscale went the other way. Its XRP Trust ETF held 55,035,728 XRP on June 30, 2026, against 122,230,386 at December 31, 2025 [3].

By my count, those three filings add up to about 567 million XRP at mid-year. The full fund-by-fund count, and how it has moved, is on how much XRP the US spot ETFs hold. The holdings above leave out Ripple’s own XRP, which is explained alongside how the XRP escrow works.

These gains in coin count came while the XRP price used in Bitwise’s filing fell from $1.82 on December 31, 2025 to $1.04 on June 30, 2026 [1].

How much XRP does Evernorth hold, and what does it plan to do with it?

Evernorth said on November 4, 2025, in an announcement filed with the SEC, that its XRP purchased and committed had passed 473,276,430 [4]. The same announcement reported a further purchase of 84,365,876 XRP at an average price of about $2.54, paid from part of $214 million in cash proceeds [4]. At that date the company was still completing a business combination with Armada II, after which it would become a publicly traded digital asset treasury [4].

In that announcement Evernorth set itself apart from ETFs. It said it intends to grow its XRP per share through a mix of institutional and DeFi yield strategies and ecosystem participation [4]. Evernorth said it would become a publicly traded digital asset treasury through a business combination with Armada II, and that, unlike ETFs, it intends to grow its XRP per share through institutional and DeFi yield strategies, ecosystem participation and capital markets activities [4]. Evernorth said it would become a publicly traded digital asset treasury through a business combination with Armada II, and that, unlike ETFs, it intends to actively grow its XRP per share through a mix of institutional and DeFi yield strategies, ecosystem participation, and capital [4]. Those are stated plans. The announcement gives no figure for XRP already deployed. Whether other listed companies hold XRP in comparable size is a separate question, taken up on which public companies besides Evernorth hold XRP.

How much XRP is visibly put to work?

The clearest public number comes from Flare. On September 24, 2026, Flare reported about 145.2 million FXRP minted and 130 million FXRP in DeFi [5]. That is about 89.5% of minted FXRP, by my calculation. FXRP is a 1:1 representation of XRP, and Flare says the XRP backing it stays on the XRP Ledger in a Core Vault [5]. Flare lists where FXRP goes: it is lent and borrowed, posted as collateral, backs a stablecoin through Enosys CDP, sits in Kinetic lending markets and serves as collateral for options and perpetuals on Derive [5].

One market shows the scale. In Sentora’s RLUSD vault on Morpho, Flare reported 10.6 million FXRP posted as collateral against $7.9 million of RLUSD supplied, as of September 24, 2026 [5]. About 21 million FXRP sat on other chains that day, Flare said [5]. More detail is on what FXRP is and how much of it is used. Prime brokerage is the other channel. crypto.news reported on July 8, 2026 that Ripple Prime, which clears more than $3 trillion in trades a year for over 300 institutional clients, accepts XRP as collateral for margin and settlement within its own brokerage [6]. crypto.news reported on July 8, 2026 that Ripple Prime clears more than $3 trillion in trades annually for over 300 institutional clients, and that it accepts XRP as collateral for margin and settlement within its own brokerage [6].

What counts as “productive”, and does hedged carry inventory or ETF inventory count?

I count XRP as put to work when a public figure shows it lent, borrowed against, posted as collateral or supplying liquidity. ETF XRP does not meet that test. Franklin’s filing calls its fund a passive vehicle, says the sponsor does not actively manage the XRP and says the fund will not use leverage or derivatives [2].

ETF shares are a different matter from the XRP inside them. CaptainAltcoin reported on September 10, 2026 that a filing connected to the Schwab Prime Advantage Money Fund lists shares of several XRP ETFs as collateral in repurchase agreements [8]. It stressed that this shows ETF shares used as collateral, not necessarily a direct XRP investment by Schwab [8].

Hedged positions are harder still. CoinDesk reported on September 1, 2026 that CME XRP futures open interest rose to about 387 million XRP from 284 million between August 17 and August 31, lifting CME’s share of all XRP futures to roughly 17% [9]. A group of traders was net short by the equivalent of about 116 million XRP, more than double the roughly 57 million XRP net short a week earlier, CoinDesk reported on September 1, 2026 [9]. CoinDesk noted the data does not show whether those were outright bets or hedges on positions held elsewhere [9]. Futures contracts are not XRP in an account, so I leave them out of both pools.

For the quarter ended June 30, 2026, it reported about 105.3 million XRP added through share creations, about 13.2 million XRP removed for redemptions, and about 191,749 XRP transferred to pay the sponsor fee [1].

CaptainAltcoin reported that a Schwab filing showed XRP ETF shares being used as collateral, not necessarily a direct XRP investment by Schwab [8].

CoinDesk, citing CoinGlass data, reported total XRP futures open interest of about 2.34 billion tokens on August 31, 2026, with CME holding roughly 17% [9].

How one coin can do several jobs is covered on whether the same XRP can be held, hedged and put to work at once.

Is the productive pool growing faster or slower than the held pool?

The windows do not line up, which limits the comparison. On the held side, Franklin issued shares for 65,709,080 XRP in the second quarter of 2026 and redeemed none [2]. Bitwise added about 105.3 million XRP through creations in that quarter and paid out about 13.2 million for redemptions [1]. Grayscale shrank, redeeming about 103.4 million XRP in the first half of 2026 against about 36.3 million contributed [3].

On the working side, Flare reported more than 90 million FXRP minted by the end of January 2026, with roughly 80% in DeFi, and more than 155 million by late April [5]. FXRP in DeFi grew from 82 million to 144 million between February and July [5]. By September 24 it stood at 130 million, with 145.2 million minted [5]. Flare’s own numbers show the working pool growing fast in the first half and falling after midsummer. How much more could move without new buyers is the subject of putting held XRP to work, and the measuring problem is set out on how actual XRP use is measured.

Why can’t these pools simply be added together?

The same XRP can appear in more than one place. Flare says Hex Trust brought FXRP minting inside regulated custody [5], so XRP in a custodian’s care can also back FXRP working in DeFi. Ripple Prime collateral is not broken out at all [6][7]. ICObench wrote in May 2026 that a $200 million revolving facility with Neuberger Specialty Finance provides the balance sheet capacity to fund client positions, and that the data could not confirm whether the Neuberger facility had been drawn against in material size [7]. ICOBench reported in May 2026 that a $200 million Neuberger Specialty Finance facility funds client positions at Ripple Prime, and that it could not confirm whether the facility had been drawn in material size [7]. The overlaps are worked through on whether ETF, treasury, DeFi and derivatives XRP can be added together.

What is the strongest case that institutional XRP is mostly sitting still?

Crypto.news made it on July 8, 2026. It found that inside Ripple’s own product stack the asset doing settlement work is predominantly RLUSD, not XRP [6]. It judged Ripple Prime’s XRP collateral real but largely internal, and called the share of Ripple Prime’s business that becomes XRP demand today a sliver [6]. Its summary of each route to XRP demand was that each path exists and each is currently narrow [6]. It also reported that skeptics deny infrastructure owned by the token’s issuer counts as token demand without third-party adoption [6].

Scale cuts the same way. Crypto.news put XRP’s supply at 100 billion tokens [6], and the 130 million FXRP Flare counts in DeFi is a small fraction of that. The supply side is covered on how many XRP exist.

It found that Ripple Prime’s acceptance of XRP as collateral is Ripple’s own brokerage accepting Ripple’s own asset, and that the path “today it mostly runs in a circle” [6].