Who owns XRP ETFs, and what do 13F filings really show?

The full answer

Which institutions hold the Bitwise XRP ETF?

HolderBook lists 73 institutional holders of the Bitwise XRP ETF for the second quarter of 2026 [1]. Together they reported 6,363,073 shares worth $76.2 million. Goldman Sachs led with 2,208,949 shares worth $25.8 million, a position HolderBook marks as new [1]. WallStRank gives the same Goldman figure [2].

Jane Street Group came second on HolderBook’s list, with 1,205,067 shares worth $14.2 million. IronBridge Private Wealth reported $6.1 million and Millennium Management $5.8 million. Marex Group followed at $4.4 million, then Envestnet Asset Management at $4.3 million [1]. Citadel Advisors appears with $1.5 million, listed as options only [1].

Trackers don’t always agree. BigGo Finance reported in August 2026 that Wells Fargo disclosed about $9.18 million in Bitwise XRP ETF holdings in a second-quarter 13F submitted August 14. That filing was split into line items of $1.39 million and $7.79 million [3]. HolderBook lists Wells Fargo with 787 shares worth $9.2 thousand [1].

Who are the largest XRP ETF holders across all funds?

CoinDesk reported on September 2, 2026 that Goldman Sachs was the largest disclosed institutional holder of XRP funds at the end of the second quarter, with about $87.4 million of exposure. Its figures came from Bloomberg Intelligence data compiled from 13F filings. Jane Street followed with $16.6 million and Millennium Management with $16.2 million [4].

By category, investment advisers held about $120 million of the $183 million disclosed, CoinDesk said. Hedge funds held about $25 million, brokerages $17 million and banks around $14 million [4]. Bitcoin.com News called that ownership thin and concentrated on September 9, 2026. It wrote that Goldman Sachs, Millennium Management, Intesa Sanpaolo and Jane Street accounted for the majority of the top 30 holders [5].

BlackRock is a separate story, covered in what BlackRock has to do with XRP. On February 24, 2026, 24/7 Wall St. reported that McClurg, an insider quoted by the outlet, expected BlackRock to file for a spot XRP ETF by late 2026 or early 2027 if current trends continue [6].

Does Goldman Sachs own XRP?

Goldman’s filings show shares in XRP funds. An ETF gives indirect exposure through exchange-traded shares and does not transfer ownership of the underlying cryptocurrency to each shareholder, Bitcoin.com News explained on September 5, 2026 [7].

In August 2026, crypto.news reported that Goldman disclosed $86.5 million across five spot XRP ETFs in its second-quarter 13F. The bank had reported zero XRP ETF exposure at the end of the first quarter [8]. Tron Weekly reported on August 21, 2026 that Goldman’s largest holding was 2,238,407 shares of Franklin Templeton’s XRPZ [9].

Goldman held more before that exit. Ripple wrote on April 17, 2026 that Goldman disclosed a $153.8 million position in spot XRP ETFs in March 2026, through its fourth-quarter 2025 13F. Ripple added that Goldman accounted for roughly 73% of the just over $211 million held by the top 30 institutional holders [10].

How did the number of 13F holders change from Q1 to Q2?

HolderBook counts 32 institutional holders of the Bitwise XRP ETF for the fourth quarter of 2025. That rose to 60 in the first quarter of 2026 and 73 in the second [1]. Reported shares moved from 2,738,175 to 1,899,407, then to 6,363,073. Reported value went from $56.3 million to $29.1 million, then $76.2 million [1].

Price did not drive the second-quarter rise. Bitwise reported that its net asset value per share fell from $20.46 on December 31, 2025 to $11.66 on June 30, 2026, a total return of minus 43.01% for the six months [11].

What share of ETF shares do 13F filers hold versus retail investors?

Bitwise reported net assets of $299.1 million for the fund on June 30, 2026, with a net asset value of $11.66 per share [11]. My own arithmetic from those two numbers gives roughly 25.6 million shares outstanding. On that basis the 6,363,073 shares on institutional reports were about a quarter of the fund. HolderBook’s page shows 24.0% of shares outstanding [1].

The rest is not a measure of retail ownership. A 13F is required only from investment managers with more than $100 million in qualifying assets, Tron Weekly noted [9]. Every holder below that line is missing from the count.

How does the holder count compare with bitcoin and ether ETFs at the same age?

An EdgeX Pro article on Goldman Sachs’ Q2 2026 13F disclosure noted that 13Fs list long positions as of the quarter’s final trading day and do not separate proprietary holdings from positions kept for clients or market-making activity, so the filings rank the largest disclosed holders rather than every large investor in a fund. Ripple said XRP ETF inflows crossed $1 billion by December 16, 2025, the fastest of any digital asset since Ethereum’s ETF launch [10]. Bitcoin spot ETFs crossed $1 billion within their first week of trading in January 2024, crypto.news reported [8]. CoinDesk noted on September 2, 2026 that US spot bitcoin funds took in $2.26 billion over six sessions in late August. That was more than XRP’s ETFs had gathered since they started trading [4].

Does a 13F filing mean an institution is bullish on XRP?

13F filings are quarterly disclosures of many US-listed stocks and funds held by large investment managers, as CoinDesk described them [4]. They list long positions as of the quarter’s last trading day. They do not separate a firm’s own holdings from positions kept for clients or market-making, Tron Weekly explained [9].

CoinDesk added that the figures measure gross ETF positions, not a firm’s complete exposure to XRP. Goldman, Jane Street and Millennium can all hold an XRP ETF while hedging some or all of the price risk through futures or other instruments. The filings do not show whether they did [4]. CoinDesk said these holdings may have come from market-making, basis trading and filling client orders from wealth management accounts, rather than a unified corporate strategy to back XRP [4]. The reasons a trading firm holds the asset without a price view are covered in why market makers hold XRP.

What is the case that these holdings are deliberate bets?

Some coverage reads the filings as intent. crypto.news argued in August 2026 that Goldman spreading its position across five issuers suggests deliberate portfolio construction rather than a one-off trade [8]. Ripple, which has a direct interest in XRP demand, wrote on April 17, 2026 that the breadth of holdings signals a structured allocation, not a market-making residual. It counted 30 major institutions, including Millennium and Citadel, holding XRP ETF exposure [10].

The same filings record Goldman at zero at the end of March 2026, between two large positions [8]. Whether any holder pairs its ETF shares with a short futures position is the subject of the hedged XRP carry trade. For the fund-level totals behind these shares, see how much XRP the US spot ETFs hold.

When will third-quarter holdings be known?

The third quarter ended on September 30, 2026. Managers have 45 days after quarter-end to file [9]. Positions as of that date will appear in filings through mid-November 2026. Claims about third-quarter institutional ownership made before then rest on incomplete data.