Wall Street’s biggest players are taking sharply different bets on XRP. Goldman Sachs exited its entire ETF position in the token during the first quarter, offloading roughly $154 million worth of shares. That sale — disclosed in mandatory Q1 2026 filings — removed the bank as the dominant institutional holder of XRP funds, a role it had held with nearly three‑quarters of all known large‑investor exposure. The capital did not leave the crypto space entirely: Goldman rotated into stakes in Coinbase, Circle and Galaxy Digital, while its multibillion‑dollar Bitcoin position remained untouched. The message from one of the street’s most influential firms is clear — it is rotating out of alternative tokens and into infrastructure.
But not every institution is following suit. UBS, Millennium Management and Citadel Advisors all maintained their XRP ETF holdings through the quarter, and a fresh name joined the list in May. Intesa Sanpaolo, Italy’s largest bank, built a position in the Grayscale XRP Trust valued at between $18 million and $26 million, a move that underscores how European lenders are gaining crypto exposure through regulated vehicles rather than direct token purchases. The divergence between Goldman’s exit and the continued accumulation by others highlights the uncertainty that still grips institutional attitudes toward Ripple’s token.
Retail investors continue to provide the bulk of demand, accounting for 84% of all XRP ETF holders. Total assets under management across the seven US‑listed XRP funds have fallen to around $1 billion from a peak of $1.5 billion. Yet the picture is not uniformly bearish: in May alone, those ETFs attracted net inflows of more than $94 million. The Canary XRP ETF, one of the largest, reported holdings of 212.6 million XRP — worth roughly $305 million at current prices — as of mid‑month.
Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying XRP?
Regulatory progress is the key variable that could tip the balance. The Senate Banking Committee advanced the CLARITY Act by a 15‑9 vote on May 14, a bill designed to clarify jurisdictional lines for digital assets and give institutions the legal certainty many say they need. XRP surged briefly above $1.50 on the news before profit‑taking erased the gain. The token has since slipped about 6% over the past seven days. A March 2026 joint classification by the SEC and CFTC already deemed XRP a digital commodity, but a recent survey found that two‑thirds of large investors are still waiting for legislation before committing capital.
Behind the price action, the XRP ecosystem continues to evolve. Ripple burned more than 32 million RLUSD stablecoins on Ethereum on May 16, bringing the month’s total burn volume to nearly 62 million tokens — a signal that the company is actively managing supply and liquidity. Meanwhile, tokenized real‑world assets on the XRP Ledger have climbed to nearly half a billion dollars in value. A new AI‑powered trading system from AixAlpha, launched on May 16 and 17, now covers XRP among more than 100,000 daily market signals, further professionalizing the trading environment. RippleX’s head of research, Aanchal Malhotra, also outlined a technology roadmap focused on privacy, zero‑knowledge proofs and post‑quantum cryptography, all aimed at making the ledger more attractive for institutional use.
At $1.39, XRP is trading roughly 26% below its level at the start of the year and well under the 200‑day moving average of $1.72. On‑chain data offers a contrasting narrative: wallets holding at least 10,000 XRP have risen to about 332,230 addresses, extending an accumulation trend that began in mid‑2024. The market is effectively pricing in the promise of future clarity rather than immediate catalysts. Until the CLARITY Act becomes law — or another catalyst breaks the technical resistance — the token remains caught between a growing institutional scaffold and a skeptical short‑term consensus.
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