XRP Market Report — August 2026
The month in one paragraph
August 2026 was the month the institutional bid arrived on schedule and the price refused to confirm it. XRP broke a 635-day run below $1 on August 11, spiked 70% in 72 hours to $1.70 on August 22, and spent the final ten sessions giving half of it back to close the month near $1.38 — still +28%, 2026's best month (CriptoFacil, Aug 22–24; Yellow.com, Aug 31–Sep 1; edgeX). Meanwhile the ETF complex printed its best month ever — ≈$159.2M on the final tally (SoSoValue) — RLUSD crossed $2B with $1B of it on the XRP Ledger, Goldman Sachs's 13F revealed an $87.4M book built in a single quarter, and futures open interest fell 15.5% through the rally. Every number in this report carries its source and snapshot date; the edition was revised on September 14, 2026 under our fully sourced data policy.
1. The tape: $0.99 → $1.70 → $1.38
| Date | Event | Source, date |
|---|---|---|
| Aug 11 | The 635-day run below $1 ends; the intraday print near 99.15¢ marks the exit | Week-of-Aug-10 coverage; CriptoFacil |
| Aug 14 | The monthly low: $0.9874 | edgeX; CriptoFacil |
| Aug 20–22 | +70% in 72 hours: $1.00 → $1.70 (also read as $1.66 on some platforms), rejected within hours to $1.42, stabilizing near $1.50 | CriptoFacil, Aug 22–24 |
| Aug 24–28 | Digestion: $1.50 → $1.42 → the high $1.30s | CriptoFacil; Yellow.com, Aug 31–Sep 1 |
| Aug 31 | Monthly close: ~$1.38 — +28% for August, the year's best month; range $0.9874–$1.70, a 72% span | Yellow.com, Aug 31–Sep 1 |
The character note that matters: the rally was spot-led. Open interest fell 15.5% over Aug 17–31 while price rose 28% for the month — short covering and fund demand, not leverage. That is why the spike was violent, the rejection was fast, and the fade was orderly.
2. Fund flows: the record month
| Month (2026) | Net inflow | Note |
|---|---|---|
| February | $58.09M | Former record |
| April | $81.59M | — |
| May | $131.94M | Former record |
| June | $59.46M | — |
| July | $27.29M | The drought |
| August | ≈$159.2M — all-time record | $153.55M through Aug 28; $150.28M of it in the final fortnight |
The shape inside the record: a first-half drought (~$3.27M through mid-August), the drought breaking August 18, a four-session re-engagement (+$43.06M, calculated), the largest week of 2026 (+$110.49M, Aug 24–28 — largest since the ~$231M week ending Dec 5), and the streak's first September sessions. Cumulative inflows finished August at ~$1.67B; net assets rose $1.33B → $1.44B in the final week (SoSoValue via Yellow.com, Aug 31; Finobird; Summa Money). Issuer split of the month: Bitwise ~$92M (61%), Franklin ~$36M, Canary ~$15M, others ~$7M. Retail remains ~84% of complex inflows.
Scale check, both directions: Bitcoin's complex took ~$3.52B in the same month — about 22 times XRP's record — and ~$55.6B cumulatively since January 2024 against XRP's $1.67B (SoSoValue, September tally). XRP's August is a rounding error at market scale and an all-time record at complex scale. Both facts price in.
3. RLUSD: the $2B month
The stablecoin's trajectory through August: $1.87B circulating at the August 20 attestation ($1.981B reserves), the $2B crossing confirmed by Ripple on August 25, RWA.xyz reading $2.02B — ~$962.9M on the XRP Ledger and ~$1.1B on Ethereum — and the XRPL side crossing $1B on August 28, over 90% of all stablecoin supply on the ledger (Ripple transparency via FinanceFeeds; Crypto Times/RWA.xyz, Aug 25–26; Ripple via COINOTAG, Aug 28). September's compilation: $2.32B (RWA.xyz via crypto.news).
The holder base stayed wholesale: 84,630 holders, 1.39M monthly transfers, $11.81B transfer volume (+17% MoM) against 8,252 active addresses (−25.2% MoM) — volume up, addresses down, concentration up. Treasury mint/burn operations through the month's end (15M on Aug 29; 20M/19.94M/19.99M ETH-side plus 19.9M XRPL-side on Aug 30; a paired 11M mint/burn on Aug 31) read as logistics, not speculation.
4. Supply & the ledger
| Series | Reading | Source, date |
|---|---|---|
| Circulating supply (market-data basis) | ~62.7–62.9B XRP across the month | CoinGecko basis; CoinGabbar 62.74B, Sep 3 |
| Circulating supply (ledger basis) | 67.53B XRP | XRPScan, Jul 26 |
| XRP in escrow | 32.445B XRP | XRPScan (community-verified), Jul 26 |
| Total XRP burned (all-time) | 14.37M XRP | XRPScan, Jul 26 |
| Activated accounts | 8.02M | XRPScan, Jul 26 |
Escrow released ~1B during the month with 60–80% typically re-escrowed — roughly a 300M net monthly drip that every demand number competes against. The two circulating-supply bases differ by ~5B XRP because aggregators apply Ripple's distribution methodology to raw activated supply; market caps are computed against the estimate.
5. Network activity
| Metric | Value | Source, date |
|---|---|---|
| Avg daily active addresses | ~35,700 — +33% vs ~26,400 in July; held through drawdown and spike | Santiment via edgeX, Aug 13 |
| Single-day peak | 49,929 (Aug 14) — a two-month high, ~3% above May's reading at $1.54 prices | XRP Ledger data via Sensei.news, Aug 16 |
| Millionaire wallets (≥1M XRP) | +32 in ~3 months — added during a 29% decline | Santiment via edgeX, Aug 12–13 |
| New address creation | Flat — growth from existing holders, not new entrants | Santiment via Summa Money, Sep |
| Settlement finality | 3–5 seconds (protocol constant) | XRPL protocol specification |
September's later compilations add the mix shift the August readings foreshadowed: 2.4M daily transactions (+21% YoY) on ~40% fewer active accounts year-over-year, with DEX volume +79% YoY (crypto.news). More activity, fewer transactors: the ledger is consolidating into fewer, more serious users.
6. Derivatives: the reset
Futures open interest fell 15.5% over August 17–31 — a block figure; weekly interpolation was not published (CoinGlass via CoinDesk, Sep 8). Funding had no verifiable weekly print in late August; later coverage dated the positive turn to August 28 near +0.01%/8h (CoinGlass via Coin Journal). September's later baseline (~2.24B XRP, $3.06B) sits below the August peak. The reset is the month's least glamorous and most consequential derivatives story: no liquidation fuel under the rally, none under the fade, and a positioning rebuild that September inherits at ground level.
7. Institutions: the 13F quarter
| Holder | XRP ETF position | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Goldman Sachs | $87.4M (+~$83.1M QoQ) | Largest institutional holder |
| Jane Street | $16.6M | Market-maker footprint |
| Millennium | $16.2M | Multi-strategy |
| Intesa Sanpaolo | $14.4M | The notable bank line outside the US majors |
| Marex UK | $8.1M | — |
| JPMorgan | $1,356 (as filed, ~113 shares) | The comic relief — a $5.1T bank's entire disclosed position |
Q2 2026 13F filings via James Seyffart (Bloomberg Intelligence) / Yellow.com, Aug 31. Around the filings: Ripple Prime's $275M prime-brokerage raise (announced the week of Aug 17) and Bitwise's continuing issuer lead ($542.69M cumulative as of Aug 22) gave the institutional quarter its operational texture. The honest read: institutions are present and permissioned, retail still owns the flows.
8. September's decision stack
- Sep 15 — CLARITY cloture. The Senate's market-structure vote (60 votes required), with the House breaking September 17 (CoinGabbar).
- Sep 16 — the Fed. The rate decision, with a CPI print between the two events (CoinGabbar).
- Every session — the daily flow prints. Whether the streak's resumption survives a decision week is the flows-price divergence's test.
- The positioning rebuild. Funding back above zero since Aug 28; whether OI rebuilds with trend confirmation determines if the next leg has fuel.
9. Levels & scenarios
| Level | Read |
|---|---|
| $1.65–$1.70 | The supply zone: rejected the Aug 22 spike within hours; stopped multiple rallies across recent months |
| $1.50 | First resistance; the stabilization shelf of the reversal week |
| $1.42 | The reclaimed level from the +70% move; lost in the digest, first reclaim target |
| $1.38 | The August close — the month's final pivot |
| $1.30 | The shelf that held all month |
| $1.00–$1.05 | Structural reference: the summer shelf left on August 11 |
Scenarios into the decision: a dovish print with flows intact hands the $1.50–$1.70 zone its first well-sponsored retest; a hold keeps the $1.30–$1.44 digest alive and leaves the divergence unresolved; a hawkish surprise tests $1.30 with the summer shelf as the downside reference. The divergence resolves from whichever side breaks first — the flow side or the price side.
Bottom line
Grade August by its ledgers, not its candlestick. The flow ledger: a record month (~$159.2M), a record week ($110.49M), cumulative inflows to ~$1.67B, net assets up $110M in a week. The tape ledger: +28%, a 635-day streak broken, a 72-hour +70% spike — and a close at $1.38, roughly 19% below the high. The stablecoin ledger: $2B crossed, $1B on XRPL, wholesale concentration deepening. The derivatives ledger: −15.5%, funding flat-to-positive. That is the signature of a market being accumulated by schedule rather than chased by momentum — and it makes September's decision stack the most consequential fortnight the complex has traded.
Sources & further reading
- Price, monthly close, tape — Yellow.com (Aug 31–Sep 1), CriptoFacil (Aug 22–24), Summa Money
- ETF monthly series, records, issuer split, net assets — SoSoValue via Yellow.com (Aug 31), Finobird, Yahoo Finance, 24/7 Wall St. (Sep 10)
- RLUSD milestone, holders, treasury operations — Crypto Times (RWA.xyz), COINOTAG, FinanceFeeds, Aug 20–31; crypto.news, Sep
- Open interest −15.5%, funding — CoinGlass via CoinDesk (Sep 8) and Coin Journal
- 13F institutional table — Q2 2026 filings via James Seyffart (Bloomberg Intelligence) / Yellow.com, Aug 31
- Network activity — Santiment via edgeX, Aug 12–13; Sensei.news, Aug 16; crypto.news, Sep
- Supply snapshot — XRPScan, Jul 26; CoinGabbar, Sep 3
FAQ
Was August a good month or a disappointing one?
Both, by ledger. Price: +28%, the year's best month, but a close 19% below the $1.70 high. Flows: the complex's best month ever (~$159.2M final tally, SoSoValue). RLUSD: $2B crossed with $1B on XRPL. Derivatives: a −15.5% reset. The month accumulated; it did not confirm.
Is the August ETF record $153.55M or $159.2M?
$153.55M is the month-to-date figure through August 28 as published on Aug 31; ≈$159.2M is the final tally including August 31 (SoSoValue). Both are correct as of their stated dates and labeled where used.
Why did open interest fall while price rose 28%?
The rally was carried by spot fund demand and short covering, not new leveraged longs (CoinGlass via CoinDesk block figure, Aug 17–31). No leverage fuel under the move explains both the spike's violence and the fade's orderliness.
Why do two circulating-supply numbers appear?
Market-data aggregators apply Ripple's distribution methodology (~62.7–62.9B) while XRPScan reports raw activated ledger supply (67.53B, Jul 26). Market caps are computed against the estimate. Both are real; they measure different things.
Is this financial advice?
No. XRPLinsights publishes research and commentary for informational purposes. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell XRP or any other asset.