Are XRP whales accumulating, and does that mean institutions are buying?

The full answer

What does whale data actually measure?

XRP Insights’ XRP Radar lists exchange holdings by exchange, with a count of tracked wallets for each, and notes that some exchanges may have additional unlabeled wallets not included; it sources wallet addresses and balances from the XRPSCAN Rich List, verified via XRPL on-chain data. A balance on its own does not say who controls it. XRP Insights’ supply report for the week to September 26, 2026 shows how much XRP sits in places that are not individual buyers: 31.98B XRP in Ripple’s on-ledger escrow and a further 4.74B XRP in Ripple operational wallets [1], and 21.14B XRP in publicly attributed exchange wallets [1].

Any of these can show up as a large wallet. A rise in large-wallet balances can come from a venue moving coins between its own addresses, a custodian receiving coins for a fund, or Ripple moving coins between its own wallets. None of those is an institution buying XRP in the market. The question of who holds the largest balances is covered on who owns the most XRP.

How can a holder tell exchange, custodian and ETF wallets from individuals?

Only partly, and only through labels that someone has published. XRP Insights counts exchange balances from publicly attributed exchange wallets, lists each one, and calls the total a verified floor because unlabelled wallets are left out [1]. It takes ETF holdings from each issuer’s own website rather than from the ledger [1].

Fund filings name the custodians. The Canary XRP ETF’s quarterly report for the period ended June 30, 2026 says Coinbase Custody and BitGo serve as the trust’s custodians and are responsible for safekeeping all of its XRP [8]. The same filing lists 231,279,303 XRP held by that one fund on June 30, 2026 [8].

A wallet that receives ETF coins is a custodian’s wallet, so on the ledger it looks like a whale. Unless a tracker has tied an address to an exchange, custodian, fund or Ripple, a reader cannot tell it apart from a wealthy individual.

The Canary XRP ETF’s Form 10-Q names Coinbase Custody Trust Company and BitGo Trust Company as the custodians responsible for safekeeping all of the trust’s XRP, which came to 231,279,303 XRP on 30 June 2026 [8].

Is XRP moving onto or off exchanges?

In the week to September 26, 2026, tracked exchange wallets showed a net change of minus 625.9M XRP, according to XRP Insights [1]. That is coins leaving labelled exchange addresses.

Coins leave exchanges for several reasons. 24/7 Wall St. Reported that Bitget lost 103 million XRP in a breach on September 24, 2026 [6]. A theft like that registers on chain as coins leaving an exchange, just as a transfer to a custodian or to self-custody would. 24/7 Wall St. Also noted that much XRP trading happens inside exchange order books, so ETF inflows don’t capture broader market sentiment [6]. How much of reported trading volume is real is covered on where XRP trades.

Are ETF holdings a cleaner signal, and are they growing?

Over September 18 to 26, 2026, US spot XRP ETFs and index funds gained a net 34.0M XRP to hold 1.16B XRP with $1.76B in combined assets, XRP Insights reported [1]. Its daily table showed minus 716K XRP on September 21, plus 12.7M on September 22, plus 12.5M on September 23, plus 9.9M on September 24 and minus 473K on September 25 [1]. The trend over time is tracked on how much XRP the ETFs hold.

These figures have their own limits. 24/7 Wall St. reported that on September 25, 2026 the funds held about $1.77 billion in assets, about $20 million less than the cash investors had put in, and that cumulative inflows of $1.79 billion exceeded that total [6]. It also noted that SoSoValue nets creations against redemptions, so a day’s gain could come from one large buyer or from many [6]. Creations can be settled in XRP or in cash, according to the Canary 10-Q [8], and PrimeXBT notes that if issuers source XRP over the counter or from large holders, the buying would not show up as exchange pressure [5]. The mechanics are set out on ETF creations and redemptions. A Cheeky Crypto analysis published on KuCoin News on September 22, 2026 adds that XRP buying happens only when new fund shares are created [9].

Its daily flows were minus 716,000 XRP on 21 September, +12.7 million on 22 September, +12.5 million on 23 September, +9.9 million on 24 September and minus 473,000 on 25 September [1].

What do 13F filings show about institutions?

Bitcoin.com News reported on September 5, 2026 that disclosed second-quarter 13F holdings of XRP ETFs totaled $183.47 million, about 176.35 million XRP, with Goldman Sachs, Jane Street and Millennium Management leading by dollar exposure [2]. The same report says the data cover ETF shares rather than tokens, and that the positions can support market-making, arbitrage, hedging or portfolio management [2].

Bitcoin.com News wrote on September 9, 2026 that disclosed institutional ownership of XRP ETFs remains thin and concentrated [3], and that Schwab’s money fund did not buy XRP ETFs, because a prime money market fund is not permitted to [3]. That fund’s repo collateral is covered on XRP ETF shares as repo collateral, and the filing detail on who owns XRP ETFs.

Schwab’s N-MFP3 filing of 8 September 2026 listed Grayscale, Canary, Franklin and Bitwise XRP ETFs as repo collateral, and Bitcoin.com News reported XRP ETF collateral of $8.32 million in August [3].

Do leveraged positions explain the same moves?

Part of late September’s activity sat in derivatives. Cryptonomist reported on September 23, 2026 that futures volume across CME and Binance was about $9.4 billion, against $2.2 billion of spot volume in the prior 24 hours [7]. Cryptonomist described the rally it covered as happening almost entirely through derivatives positioning rather than spot accumulation [7]. Cryptonomist described the rally as happening almost entirely through derivatives positioning rather than spot accumulation [7]. The mechanics are on leverage, funding and liquidations.

It reported that CME XRP futures open interest rose more than 16% in 24 hours to $756 million, and wrote that the move happened almost entirely through derivatives positioning rather than spot accumulation [7].

Cryptonomist’s account points to derivatives positioning rather than spot accumulation [7], so futures activity is not the same as XRP being bought and held.

What is the strongest case that institutions are buying?

The strongest evidence is in filings. crypto.news reported in August 2026 that Goldman Sachs disclosed $86.5 million across five spot XRP ETFs in its Q2 2026 13F filing, after zero XRP ETF exposure at the end of Q1, and read the spread across five issuers as deliberate portfolio construction rather than a one-off trade [4]. ETF holdings also rose by 34.0M XRP in the week to September 26, 2026, according to XRP Insights [1].

This supports the claim that some named institutions took on XRP exposure through ETFs in 2026. It does not support the claim that rising whale balances are institutions, because the filings and the wallet data measure different things.

The same outlet reported XRP at approximately $1.05 on 25 August 2026, down 57% from its January 2026 high of $2.43, and argued that ETF growth during that drawdown represented conviction buying, not momentum chasing [4].