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A recent comment from crypto analyst CryptoTank has brought 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 arrives at a time when $XRP is now positioned to start to receive institutional inflows from the recently launched Canary Spot $XRP ETF.
Why Wallet Count Does Not Equal Holder Count
CryptoTank noted that nearly 7 million wallets holding $XRP does not translate to millions of people owning the asset. He pointed out that he personally maintains roughly 30 wallets, and most committed $XRP investors tend to operate between four and six on average. This means a single individual can appear multiple times in on-chain statistics, making the total wallet count an unreliable indicator of how many real participants exist.
The view is simple: the actual number of distinct $XRP holders is far lower than many assume, and he believes the true figure sits comfortably below 1 million worldwide. This paints a picture of a community that is still at an early stage compared to other major digital assets. If only a fraction of those seven million addresses belong to unique individuals, then the people who hold $XRP today represent a much smaller, far earlier group than estimates imply.
CryptoTank described this group as being “way ahead” of the world, meaning that current holders occupy a position that could become far more valuable once broader participation finally arrives.
A small holder base means that any meaningful expansion in demand, whether retail or institutional, could have an outsized effect on price because the $XRP price has not yet experienced the type of mass inflow seen in previous cycles for Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Institutional Expansion With Spot $XRP ETF
This discussion arrives at a significant moment for $XRP, particularly with the introduction of the newly launched Spot $XRP ETF in the United States. The product widens $XRP’s reach beyond its early holder group, allowing institutions and retail traders in regulated markets to also invest in the cryptocurrency.
If the true population of $XRP holders is small, the arrival of ETF demand could become a major turning point. As inflows grow, this new access point may 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 started its first full trading day with $243.05 million in inflows on November 14, according to data from SoSoValue.
This wasn’t reflected in the price of $XRP though, as the cryptocurrency is down alongside the rest of the market. At the time of writing, $XRP is trading at $2.26, down by 1.4% in the past 24 hours.
Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView