In late 2025, Goldman Sachs built one of the largest disclosed Wall Street positions in XRP exchange-traded funds, only to fully exit the entire $154 million stake by Q1 2026. The bank’s latest 13F filing shows it completely unwound holdings across Bitwise, Franklin Templeton, Grayscale, and 21Shares ETFs, while also dropping all Solana ETF exposure and cutting Ethereum holdings by 70%. Bitcoin remained its only major crypto ETF position at roughly $700 million.
The news rattled XRP markets. But the full picture is more nuanced than the headline.
Was Goldman’s $154M XRP ETF Exit Just Trading Activity?
Bloomberg analysts had flagged Goldman’s Q4 2025 XRP ETF build-up as trading-desk facilitation rather than directional conviction, and the Q1 exit confirms that. The bank was never making a long-term call on XRP. It was market-making.
At one point, Goldman accounted for around 73% of the top disclosed institutional XRP ETF holdings, making its exit look more consequential than it was. Despite the withdrawal, recent trading dynamics suggest organic demand absorbed the bank’s exit without generating significant downward pressure on XRP’s price.
The numbers bear this out. Per SoSoValue statistics, net inflows into XRP ETFs reached $60.49 million over the past week, including $10.87 million during the latest reporting day, while inflows since early April have climbed to $176.3 million.
XRP was changing hands at $1.38 on May 18, down 6.54% over the past seven days and 26.46% year-to-date. That slide predates Goldman’s filing. It reflects broad altcoin pressure since XRP peaked at $3.65 in July 2025, not a direct consequence of this institutional exit.
Goldman’s Real Bet: Hyperliquid, Not Altcoins
The bank acquired roughly 654,630 shares of Hyperliquid Strategies Inc. (PURR), valued at approximately $3.3 million, in the days before the first U.S. Hyperliquid ETFs came to market.
Bitwise’s BHYP ETF debuted on the New York Stock Exchange on May 15. 21Shares launched its own product on May 12. Hyperliquid is a decentralized perpetual futures platform. It processed roughly $2.9 trillion in trading volume during 2025, a more than 400% increase from the prior year, while commanding nearly 60% of global onchain derivatives open interest, according to Bitwise.
$3.3 million versus $154 million is a small trade. But the direction is clear: Goldman is moving toward crypto infrastructure plays away from direct altcoin ETF exposure.
UBS, Bank of America, and RBC Step In Where Goldman Stepped Out
While Goldman fully unwound its position, UBS, Bank of America, and RBC each disclosed small first-time XRP ETF stakes in Q1 2026 filings. UBS, the world’s largest wealth manager with $5.7 trillion in assets, accumulated 197,369 shares in the Volatility Shares XRP ETF and 317 shares in the Grayscale XRP Trust.
Cumulative XRP ETF inflows now sit above $1.37 billion since the November 2025 launch, with XRP-focused funds holding $1.25 billion in assets under management, surpassing Solana-linked products at roughly $1.05 billion.
The CLARITY Act Is Now the Defining Catalyst for XRP’s Next Move
As we covered in our recent piece, the CLARITY Act already cleared the Senate Banking Committee on May 14, 2026, in a 15-9 bipartisan vote. The full Senate is next.
For XRP, that vote matters far more than any single institutional trade. The bill would formally classify XRP as a digital commodity under CFTC oversight, removing the regulatory barrier that has kept major asset managers, custodians, and payment providers from committing capital at scale. Standard Chartered projects XRP ETFs could attract $4 billion to $8 billion in total inflows if the CLARITY Act passes, roughly three to six times the current cumulative total.
Pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, and large asset managers that have stayed on the sidelines are waiting for that regulatory clarity. A single week of allocations from those institutions could outweigh months of retail ETF inflows. Congress heads into Memorial Day recess on May 21.
Whether that Senate floor vote happens before the window closes will define XRP’s institutional story for the remainder of 2026, and possibly beyond.
Author: Ayanfe Fakunle
See Also:
Why XRP Above $1.42 Could Trigger Another 66% Rally | Disruption Banking
