Most XRP holders are watching ETF headlines without understanding why current approvals have done almost nothing for the price. According to digital finance strategist Jake Claver, that confusion is costing investors clarity at exactly the wrong moment.
The ETFs trading today are futures-based. They never actually touch XRP. They roll contracts, collect fees, and leave the underlying supply completely undisturbed. With roughly $240 million sitting across existing futures products, the price impact has been effectively zero. That changes entirely when spot ETFs arrive.
When institutions have to actually buy
Spot ETFs operate differently. Authorized participants are legally required to purchase and hold real XRP, locked in custody with firms like Coinbase or Anchorage, backing every share issued at a mandated ratio. Every dollar of inflow means XRP physically removed from circulating supply.
Claver points out that exchange inventory is already at historically low levels. Coinbase alone has seen available XRP drop nearly 90% over recent months, down to roughly 100 million tokens. Against that backdrop, even conservative inflow estimates of $2 to $4 billion in the first year represent a serious supply problem. More aggressive projections, cited by sources including JP Morgan, suggest $5 to $8 billion could enter the market within the first 30 days alone.
“It’s like a balloon being held underwater,” Claver said. “When you let it go, it’s going to skyrocket.”
Why XRP could move faster than Bitcoin ever did
Bitcoin’s ETF approval in January 2024 took nearly a full year to translate into its full price impact, eventually reaching $100,000 in December. Claver argues XRP’s compressed timeline, thinner liquidity, and smaller exchange inventory means the same mechanics could play out in a fraction of the time.
With eight spot ETF applications currently pending SEC review, approval windows converging around late 2025, and prediction markets placing approval odds above 90%, the structural conditions are forming rapidly.
The bigger picture
Layer in RLUSD adoption, central bank digital currency pilots already running on the XRPL across multiple nations, a near-concluded SEC legal battle with Ripple, and potential major institutional partnership announcements, and Claver sees not one catalyst but several hitting simultaneously.
For long-term XRP holders, that convergence is precisely the moment they have been positioned for.
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