XRP ETF Posts Year’s Strongest Debut With $58 Million in First-Day Trading

Canary Capital’s spot XRP ETF (XRPC) opened with $58 million in first-day trading volume, the strongest debut of any exchange-traded fund launched this year, even as crypto prices extended losses.

Days later filing its pre-launch registration with the SEC, the fund began to trade and immediately attracted heavier flows than expected and strong initial interest.

The benchmark figure was first noted by Bloomberg senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas, who he tweeted On Thursday, citing Bloomberg data, the Canary ETF “barely” outperformed Bitwise’s Solana staking ETF, which attracted $57 million when it listed the end of last month.

The scale of the flows was unexpected. Balchunas initially projected around $17 million for XRPC, but the fund collapsed within half an hour and closed the session as the first debut of the year.

Canary’s XRP ETF closed its debut session at $24.55, down 7.8% after a volatile first day, according to Barchart. data.

XRPC’s first performance came as the broader crypto markets spent the day in the red, down 3.5% in terms of market capitalization to $3.43 trillion, according to CoinGecko data.

Bitcoin slipped 3.4% percent and Ether followed lower at 6.7%. Solana fell about 5% on the day to $145, giving back some of its rally tied to the pre-launch of BSOL.

Analysts say that the scale of the debut points to a strong demand for crypto exposure outside the established complex of Bitcoin and Ether.

“XRP has one of the strongest and most persistent retail communities in crypto, a level of fandom that is difficult to quantify, but has historically translated into excessive trading activity whenever new products are launched,” Min Jung, senior analyst at trading company Presto, said. Decrypt.

XRP remains “one of the most well-known crypto assets among everyday investors, which naturally increases awareness and participation by the day,” Jung said. “On the institutional side, there has been a clear resurgent demand for full XRP exposure after Ripple. regulatory wins and the growing consensus around the non-security status of XRP,” he added.

Professional investors who “previously sat on the line are now comfortable accessing the asset through a regulated wrapper,” with that change likely helping to “amplify” debut activity, Jung noted.

However, Thursday’s XRPC session “appears to be a mix” despite “organic demand” given “XRP’s footprint and renewed institutional comfort.”

A “significant portion” of the flow also came “from liquidity providers running origination/redemption baskets and merchants capturing short-term premiums or discounts versus spot,” Jung said.