XRP Holds Top-5 Spot as U.S. ETFs Hit $1 Billion and XRPL Activity Stays Flat

XRP closed Q4 2025 holding its place among the largest cryptocurrencies, ending as the fifth-biggest asset by market capitalization.

Messari’s Feb. 6 report shows XRP’s circulating market cap finished the quarter at $111.6 billion, down 34.5% from Q3. This decline was sharper than the combined drop seen across Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana, which together fell 24.4% over the same period.

Source: Messari

The price of the token also depreciated, falling by 35.4% quarter-over-quarter to $1.84. The market cap drop was slightly less than the price drop due to the 1.4% increase in the circulating supply. XRP’s market cap was down 6.5% from $119.4 billion at the end of Q4 2024 compared to the same period last year.

Network fee activity was down significantly. Transaction fees in dollars decreased from 513,900 in Q3 to 133,100 in Q4, a decrease of 74.1%. Native fees decreased from 174,200 XRP to 57,600 XRP. Unlike most other chains, these fees are burned and not distributed to validators or stakers.

Source: Messari

Spot XRP ETFs Reshape U.S. Market Access

Among the largest developments, one came from Wall Street. The Q4 2025 period marked the launch of large U.S. spot XRP ETFs following SEC approval.

The ETFs reached $1 billion in assets under management in less than four weeks, making them the fastest-growing crypto ETF segment since Ethereum.

The first ETF listing was Canary Capital’s XRPC on Nov. 13, followed by Franklin Templeton’s XRPZ, Grayscale’s GXRP, 21Shares’ TOXR, and Bitwise’s XRP. By Jan. 28, 2026, spot ETFs held 789.8 million XRP, or 1.3% of the circulating supply.

Canary topped the list with 182.6 million XRP, followed by Bitwise with 160.2 million, Franklin Templeton with 142.8 million, 21Shares with 118.5 million, and Grayscale with 112.3 million.

The ETF surge was only made possible after the Ripple vs. SEC case came to a close in August 2025, resolving XRP’s legal status for secondary market trading. CME further increased XRP access through futures options in October and spot futures in December.

XRPL Supply Mechanics and Network Activity

The supply mechanism in XRP Ledger remained an influence in the long-term dynamics. Only 14.3 million XRP has been burned since inception, valued at approximately $26.3 million at the price of Q4, because of very low transaction fees of less than $0.0008 per transaction.

Ripple continues to release one billion XRP from escrow every month, recycling unused XRP into new escrow contracts until the remaining 34.2 billion XRP is in circulation.

Network activity was relatively flat. Daily active addresses decreased 8.2% to 49,000, although total addresses increased 5.7% to 7.3 million.

Transactions per day averaged 1.83 million, a 3.1% increase. Payments remained the most popular action, although OfferCreate increased, indicating more usage of the exchange functionality provided by XRPL.

Source: Messari

Also Read: XRPL Adds Institutional Lending and Privacy Tools in Ripple’s 2026 Roadmap