After many months of people getting excited and talking about it online, the cryptocurrency XRP has joined Bitcoin and Ethereum in having its own special investment product. These products, called ETFs, started on November 13.
An ETF (Exchange-Traded Fund) is like a basket of investments that you can buy and sell on the stock market. A crypto ETF lets people invest in a cryptocurrency like XRP without having to buy and hold the digital coins themselves.
Let’s see how XRP’s ETFs did in their first few weeks compared to the ETFs for Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH).
Bitcoin’s ETF Launch and Price Changes
For ten years, the U.S. government agency that makes rules for the stock market, the SEC, said “no” to Bitcoin ETFs. But in early 2024, they finally said “yes.”
When the ETFs launched on January 10, the price of Bitcoin dropped right away. This is common and is called a “sell-the-news” event. It’s when prices go up because of excitement for a future event, and then fall once the event actually happens and people sell.
Bitcoin’s price fell from $48,000 to below $40,000. But this didn’t last. Soon, a lot of money started pouring into the ETFs. These “inflows” (new money being invested) helped push Bitcoin’s price up. Within two months, Bitcoin hit a new all-time high price of over $73,000.
Overall, the Bitcoin ETFs were a big success. They have brought in over $57 billion, and Bitcoin’s price today is almost double what it was on launch day.
Ethereum’s Disappointing Start
Ethereum (ETH) is the second-biggest cryptocurrency. Any crypto that isn’t Bitcoin is often called an altcoin.
When ETH ETFs were released on July 23, 2024, its price also dropped hard. It went from $3,600 to under $2,200 in just two weeks.
Unlike Bitcoin, the ETH ETFs had a very slow start. For months, not much new money was coming in. It wasn’t until the end of the year that more investors started buying, which helped ETH’s price go up. However, the price of ETH today is still lower than it was on the day its ETFs launched.
How Is XRP Doing?
The first XRP ETF went live on November 13. On its first day, it set a record for the highest trading volume (the total amount bought and sold) for 2025.
So far, about $900 million has been invested in the new XRP ETFs. A very positive sign is that every single day, more money has come in than has gone out.
However, XRP’s price followed the same pattern as the others. It dropped on launch day, from over $2.50 to under $2.30. It has not been able to bounce back to its old price and is currently trading around $2.03.
Even so, the XRP ETFs have done better in their first few weeks than the Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs did when they first started. If people keep investing money, this could be a good sign for the price of XRP in the future.