XRP ETF Smashes Records with $46M Debut Volume

Canary Capital’s spot XRP Exchange-Traded Fund (XRPC) has surpassed most expert predictions with a record-breaking debut on Nasdaq, registering unprecedented institutional demand on its first day of trading. The first single-token XRP spot ETF began trading Thursday after clearing final regulatory hurdles this week, including completion of its 8-A filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission and receiving Nasdaq’s green light on Wednesday afternoon.

Senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg, Eric Balchunas, initially suggested the investment product could reach $17 million in volume, while broader expert predictions ranged between $15 million and $35 million. However, the XRP ETF saw $26 million in volume within just the first half-hour of trading, immediately breaking past original expectations. By the half-day mark, analyst James Seyffart noted that Canary’s XRP ETF had recorded approximately $46 million in volume, with several more hours of trading remaining.

The remarkable performance prompted Balchunas to suggest that XRPC had a “good shot” at surpassing Bitwise’s SOL Staking ETF (BSOL) for the top ETF launch position of 2025. Seyffart concluded that the ETF was “almost guaranteed to be near the top of the list for 2025 launches and still has a shot at beating $BSOL for the top spot.”

The successful launch of Canary’s XRP ETF comes amid the conclusion of a 43-day US Government shutdown that was forecasted to delay long-awaited altcoin ETFs until its resolution. The SEC had been expected to approve multiple crypto-based investment products between early October and November, after the regulatory agency postponed decision deadlines in Q3 and released new generic listing standards for the products.

Despite the government setback, the second wave of crypto-based investment products arrived as scheduled. As crypto journalist Eleanor Terret explained, the launch was possible because an open government wasn’t required to continue the process, and the 8-A filings proved “just as important” as S-1 forms since they register ETF shares under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

This regulatory navigation follows the earlier successful launches of Canary Capital’s spot Litecoin and Hedera ETFs and Bitwise’s Solana Staking ETF (BSOL), which began trading on October 28 after filing their own 8-A forms with the SEC. The continuity of these launches demonstrates the resilience of the crypto ETF approval process despite broader government disruptions.

The strong performance of Canary’s XRPC positions it to challenge Bitwise’s SOL Staking ETF, which recorded an impressive volume of $10 million in its first 30 minutes of trading, surging to $33 million by the half-day mark. BSOL ultimately closed its first day with approximately $57 million in volume, beating all other ETF launches this year and setting a high bar for new entrants.

Canary Capital has asserted its conviction that “XRP Ledger represents a leading framework for global payments — purpose-built for interoperability and real-world settlement,” signaling the firm’s strategic focus on XRP’s utility in cross-border payments and settlement systems. This institutional endorsement through ETF creation represents a significant vote of confidence in XRP’s underlying technology and market position.

Despite the ETF’s strong debut performance, XRP itself traded at $2.30 at the time of reporting, representing a 3.3% decline in the daily timeframe. This divergence between the ETF’s trading volume and the underlying asset’s price performance highlights the complex dynamics between investment product demand and direct cryptocurrency market movements.