Q1 2025 XRP Markets Report

The Future of the XRP Markets Report
Since 2017, Ripple has published the XRP Markets Report to provide transparency into its XRP holdings and to share timely updates on the state of the crypto markets and the XRP ecosystem. Ripple has always believed that open communication builds trust—and for years, the company used this report to offer insights that few others in the industry were willing to share, hoping to encourage broader transparency from industry players. However, the reality is that the report has not had the intended effect. In many instances, Ripple’s transparency has been used against the company—most notably by former SEC leadership.

After careful consideration, Ripple has made the decision to sunset the report in its current form starting in Q2 2025. While the report is evolving, Ripple will continue to be transparent and share relevant updates on Ripple and XRP-related announcements through its official channels, including Ripple and RippleXDev, and will maintain public access to its XRP holdings on the company’s website. As more institutions engage with XRP, additional perspectives and insights are expected to follow, pushing the market conversation forward.

Key Highlights

• Institutions continued to back new XRP products, with Franklin Templeton filing an S-1, CME announcing the launch of XRP futures, and Brazil’s Comissão de Valores Mobiliários approving a dedicated XRP ETF.

• The SEC officially withdrew its appeal, closing the chapter on a multi-year legal saga that tested the limits of regulatory overreach and the war on crypto. 

• Ripple acquired Hidden Road for $1.25B — one of the largest M&A deals in crypto history – driving more institutional use cases for RLUSD and XRPL.
  

Crypto Markets Summary 
In Q1 2025, optimism across the crypto industry remained high, fueled by a wave of positive developments from the new US administration. Key milestones, including Trump’s executive order signaling support for crypto, the confirmation of Paul Atkins as SEC Chairman, and bipartisan momentum around stablecoin legislation, renewed hopes for regulatory clarity in the US.

At the same time, market turbulence and macroeconomic uncertainty mounted as tariffs tensions escalated through February and March. Despite the volatility, XRP stood out as a top performer, showing resilience amid a volatile market and outperforming nearly every major crypto. Throughout Q1, XRP outpaced assets like BTC and ETH—at one point climbing nearly 50% in early February. While ETH and SOL trended sharply downward and BTC hovered near breakeven, XRP demonstrated clear relative strength.

XRP exchange-traded products continued to gain traction globally, with increased listings and inflows. XRP-based investment products outperformed their Bitcoin and Ethereum counterparts, recording $37.7M in inflows and bringing their year-to-date total to $214M — just $1M shy of overtaking global Ethereum funds. Franklin Templeton filed an S-1 for a spot XRP ETF in the U.S., CME announced the expansion of its crypto derivatives suite with the launch of XRP futures, and Volatility Shares submitted applications for three XRP ETFs. Brazil’s Comissão de Valores Mobiliários approved a dedicated XRP ETF, expanding access in Latin America, while Teucrium's 2x Long Daily XRP ETF debuted with $5M in trading volume, ranking it among the top 5% of new ETF launches.

A New Chapter: SEC Case Closed, U.S. Policy Evolving
In Q1, the SEC informed Ripple of its intent to withdraw its appeal — a clear victory for both Ripple and the broader crypto industry. Following Ripple’s decision to withdraw its own cross-appeal, the SEC agreed to reduce the proposed penalty from $125M to $50M— and request the court vacate the injunction, pending SEC Commission approval. This outcome reaffirmed what had been clear from day one: the facts and the law were on Ripple’s side.

Meanwhile, the new U.S. administration has taken meaningful steps toward turning the page on crypto regulation, signaling a more rational, clear, and forward-looking approach. Key developments included:

• The repeal of SAB 121 ended a long-criticized accounting rule that prevented banks from engaging with crypto custody.

• New guidance from the OCC affirming banks' ability to custody crypto.

• Revised FDIC policies that opened doors for traditional financial institutions to explore crypto.

• Strong bipartisan momentum around federal stablecoin legislation, aimed to bring clarity to one of the fastest-growing sectors in the crypto space.

Lastly, the SEC dropped or resolved multiple high-profile enforcement actions, including those against Coinbase, Kraken, Robinhood, OpenSea, and Uniswap Labs, indicating a meaningful and positive shift in regulatory tone.

Ripple’s Acquisition of Hidden Road, Unlocking New Institutional Use Cases for RLUSD and XRPL
Ripple announced its intent to acquire Hidden Road, a global multi-asset prime broker, in a landmark $1.25B deal, making it one of the largest acquisitions in crypto history. Hidden Road will begin using RLUSD as collateral across its suite of products to enable cross-margining between crypto and traditional finance instruments. 

Over time, Hidden Road will leverage the XRP Ledger to streamline parts of its post-trade operations, including FX, swaps, and repo markets, to reduce operational expenses and increase efficiency. This partnership marks a significant milestone in institutional adoption of blockchain infrastructure.

Deep Dive: XRP Markets 
For this report, Ripple uses market metrics from public sources including CoinDesk Data, Bloomberg, and Refinitiv Eikon.

Traded XRP volumes remained constant over the past six months, with the average daily volumes (ADV) in Q1 '25 sitting at $3.2B on top-tier exchanges, according to CoinDesk Data. The XRP/BTC ratio increased yet another time in Q1 by more than 10%, highlighting the strong relative performance against the major currency in the ecosystem.

Chart 1: XRP Price and Realized Volatility
XRP continued last year’s momentum, rallying in the first half of Q1 to nearly $3.40 — levels last seen in January 2018. However, a relatively stable period at the start of January led to a drop in realized volatility from approximately 150% to 100%, before spiking back to 130% in February, where it remained through the end of the quarter.

Table 1: Major Tokens Price and Volume (End of Q1‘25 figures)
USD prices and average trading volume reflects daily trading activity for the USD and crypto pairs on top tier exchanges as measured by CoinDesk Data’s CADLI index.

Chart 2: XRP Spot Exchange Volume
Traded volumes spiked sharply in the second half of January and again in early February, peaking above $16B, before gradually declining through March and into April. Binance consistently dominated trading activity, with notable volume surges across multiple exchanges during market peaks.

Chart 3: XRP Spot Exchange Volume (%)
Stable distribution across major exchanges in Q1, with Binance (~40%) leading the pack, followed by Upbit (~15%) and Coinbase (~12%). Bybit’s share decreased significantly after the February hack.

Chart 4: Spot Traded Volume
The percentage of USD and USD stablecoin volume traded through fiat pairs increased from 25% in Q4 ‘24  to 29% in Q1. The majority of XRP trading activity continues to be against USDT.

XRPL On-Chain Activity 
After a period of significant growth in Q4 ‘24, on-chain activity on the XRP Ledger saw a normalization last quarter. There was a 30–40% decline in both new wallet creation and overall transaction volume on XRPL — in line with activity contractions seen across major blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum. Despite this cooling, DeFi activity proved to be more resilient than other segments, with DEX volume decreasing by just 16% quarter-over-quarter, outperforming declines across most other chains. 

RLUSD emerged as one driver of on-chain activity with its market cap surpassing $90M and cumulative DEX volume exceeding $300M.

Ripple’s XRP Holdings 
Ripple reports information about its XRP holdings at the beginning of the quarter and last day of the quarter. Its holdings fall into two categories: XRP that it currently has available in its wallets, and XRP that is subject to on-ledger escrow lockups that will be released each month over the next 42 months. 

For this latter category, Ripple does not have access to that XRP until the escrow releases it to Ripple on a monthly basis. The remaining XRP released is put back into the escrow each month. 

Note: From time to time, Ripple supports or transfers to third parties, such as ETPs, trusts, and other investments, XRP that Ripple reasonably expects to maintain in its holdings. When doing so, a reduced amount of XRP may be returned to escrow that month. Until and unless Ripple expects such XRP to enter the broader market (through, for example, further transfers to third parties), that XRP is included in “XRP Held by Ripple.”

December 31, 2024
Total XRP Held by Ripple: 4,485,366,320 
Total XRP Subject to On-Ledger Escrow: 38,030,000,005

March 31, 2025
Total XRP Held by Ripple: 4,562,433,147
Total XRP Subject to On-Ledger Escrow: 37,130,000,005