XRP Lost 93% of Its Institutional Money, But Whales Smelled a Bargain

XRP ETF inflows fell roughly 93% last week, sliding to $1.01 million from $14.86 million, even as Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) funds drew heavy institutional money.

The drop made XRP the clear laggard among major digital-asset ETFs. Yet on-chain data flips that picture, showing the biggest XRP holders buying hard while institutions backed away.

Institutions Walked Away From XRP, Not From Its Rivals

The week split the majors into winners and one loser. Bitcoin ETFs swung from a $61.53 million outflow to a $754.69 million inflow. That single-week turnaround topped $816 million.

Ethereum funds pulled in $195.34 million, close to seven times the prior week’s $27.42 million. The recovery followed a stretch of softer Ethereum ETF inflows earlier in the summer.

XRP moved the other way. Its net assets slipped to $964.21 million from $988.78 million, extending a run of weaker XRP ETF demand. And its weekly inflows fell about 93% to $1.01 million from $14.86 million.

If institutions were fleeing, the obvious next question was whether smart money left with them.

The Whales Answered by Doing the Exact Opposite

They did not leave. They bought the dip as XRP eased about 5% over the week.

Santiment data shows the largest XRP wallets, holding 100 million to 1 billion tokens, raised their supply share to about 11.99% early in the week. That was up from a low near 10.66%.

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Smaller whales, holding 10 million to 100 million tokens, sold through early August. That cohort started buying again on August 6, the very day the weak ETF figure printed.

So two whale tiers leaned bullish into the price weakness while institutions retreated. It is a split seen before in XRP on-chain demand, and the timing left one more thread to pull.

The Weak Week Hid a Turn on August 6

The weekly figure buries what happened inside it. On a daily view, the damage was front-loaded. XRP ETFs took a $3.58 million outflow on August 5 and posted zero net flow on August 4.

By August 6, the institutional side had already flipped. That day drew a $3.45 million inflow, the strongest of the run. The weekly total read soft only because the late bounce could not erase the midweek bleed.

The same date turns up in the on-chain data. Glassnode shows XRP flowing onto exchanges for most of the week, a common sign of selling, which also aligns with the institutional bias. More than 2 million tokens then left those venues on August 6, a shift that usually points to accumulation.

That is three separate reads landing on one day. The ETF flow turned positive (day-on-day), the smaller whales resumed buying, and coins started leaving exchanges, all on August 6. The pattern rhymes with earlier XRP ETF inflow divergence.

The weekly split told one story, but August 6 hints at another. By that day, institutional flows had begun lining up with what the whales were already doing. Whether that fragile agreement holds, or fades like a false lead, is what the coming week has to settle.

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