A recent comment from crypto analyst CryptoTank has drawn attention to a long-standing misconception about the size of the XRP community. His post focused on the widely quoted figure of seven million XRP wallets and explained why this number does not represent the number of real holders.
The clarification comes at a time when XRP is now positioned are beginning to receive institutional inflows from the recently launched Canary Spot XRP ETF.
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Why the number of wallets does not equal the number of holders
CryptoTank almost noticed that 7 million wallets holding XRP does not translate into millions of people owning the asset. He pointed out that he personally maintains about 30 wallets, and that most dedicated XRP investors average between four and six active ones. This means that a single individual can appear multiple times in the chain’s statistics, making the total number of wallets an unreliable indicator of how many real participants there are.
The view is simple: the actual number of distinct XRP holders is much lower than many assume, and he believes the true number worldwide is well under 1 million. This paints a picture of a community that is still in its early stages compared to other major digital assets. If only a fraction of those seven million addresses belong to unique individuals, then the people holding XRP today represent a much smaller, much earlier group than estimates imply.
CryptoTank described this group as “way ahead” of the world, meaning the current holders are in a position that could become much more valuable once broader participation finally comes.
A small holder base means that every meaningful expansion of demand, Whether retail or institutional investors, it could have an outsized effect on the price as the XRP price has not yet experienced the kind of massive inflows we have seen in previous cycles for Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Institutional expansion with Spot XRP ETF
This discussion comes at an important time for XRP, especially with the introduction of the recently launched Spot XRP ETF in the United States. The product further expands the reach of XRP its early holder group, allowing institutions and retailers in regulated markets to also invest in the cryptocurrency.
If the actual population of XRP holders is small, the arrival of ETF demand could become a major turning point. As inflows grow, this new entry point could mark the beginning of a shift from an early-holder community to a broader institutional and retail audience.
Speaking of inflows, Canary’s Spot XRP ETF began its first full day of trading with inflows of $243.05 million as of Nov. 14, according to data from SoSoValue.
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This was not reflected in the price of XRP, because the cryptocurrency is falling like the rest of the market. At the time of writing, XRP is trading at $2.26, down 1.4% in the past 24 hours.
Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView