XRP-linked investment products attracted $8.88 million in net inflows on May 22, 2026, extending a seven-day run that has pulled roughly $42 million into the sector, according to CoinGlass data. The streak stands in contrast to what has happened across the rest of the listed crypto market: U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs shed more than $1.4 billion over the same period, and Ether funds lost a further $32.6 million in the most recent session alone.
The Bitcoin outflows accelerated sharply in the days before Thursday's session. SoSoValue data show funds recorded $648.6 million in redemptions on May 18 — the largest single-day exit since January 29 — followed by $331.1 million and $290.4 million on successive days. Thursday's $100.9 million added to that run. XRP funds, by contrast, recorded $18.52 million on May 14 and $10.87 million on May 15 before the latest print.
On-chain data added a second signal, though a less conclusive one. Santiment reported that XRP saw approximately 4,300 new wallets created in a single 24-hour window on May 22 — the fourth-largest daily spike in wallet creation this year. XRP was trading near $1.37 by midday Hong Kong time, per CoinDesk market data.
The divergence in flows reflects a structural difference in when institutional access arrived. Bitcoin spot ETFs have been eligible vehicles in the U.S. since January 2024. XRP-linked products launched only after the SEC's lawsuit against Ripple was resolved, compressing years of pent-up institutional demand into a shorter window. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse flagged this in December 2025, noting that XRP ETFs had reached $1 billion in assets under management faster than any other crypto spot product since Ethereum — in under four weeks. That structural tailwind appears to still be unwinding.
The caution flag sits in the same Santiment data. The wallet-creation spike is a single-day reading set against a backdrop of declining network growth. Santiment's own chart shows XRP's new-wallet trend has moved broadly lower since late 2025, which means Thursday's print looks more like a deviation from a fading trend than confirmation of renewed adoption. A one-session spike accompanied by positive ETF flow is not the same as a sustained rotation.
What the data leave open is the mechanism driving the XRP inflows. Capital moving out of Bitcoin ETFs does not automatically move into XRP products — the two fund categories have different investor bases, different redemption processes, and different liquidity profiles. The flow data show that XRP products are attracting capital at the same time Bitcoin products are losing it, not that the same investors are switching. Whether Thursday's session marks the early stages of a broader altcoin allocation trade or a short-lived pocket of speculative positioning — in a week when Bitcoin has been under pressure — the data available now cannot resolve.