XRP Price Analysis: Why Is Goldman Sachs Buying XRP While Everyone Else Is Selling?

Sam DaoduTue, March 17, 2026 at 4:47 PM UTC

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Goldman Sachs holds $153.8M across four XRP ETFs—73% of all disclosed institutional XRP ETF holdings—making it the largest institutional XRP holder in the U.S.

60% of XRP holders are sitting on losses in 2026, and 3.8 billion XRP has flowed onto Binance since January as retail and whales sell.

Goldman’s May 13F filing will reveal whether the bank held through XRP’s 40% decline or exited the position.

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Goldman Sachs is now the largest institutional XRP (CRYPTO: XRP) holder in the United States. The bank's latest SEC filing reveals $153.8 million spread across four spot XRP ETFs, which is more than the next 29 institutional holders combined.

What makes this interesting is that Goldman Sachs built this position during Q4 2025 while XRP was already sliding from its highs, and the crypto has fallen another 40% since. Retail investors have been heading for the exits, whales have been moving billions onto Binance, and the broader crypto market is sitting in Extreme Fear.

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So why is Goldman Sachs buying XRP while everyone else is selling? Let's break it down.

Goldman's $153.8 Million XRP Position

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Goldman's Q4 2025 13F filing with the SEC—covering the period ending December 31, 2025—shows a $153.8 million position across four spot XRP ETFs. This wasn't an expansion of an existing stake as Goldman initiated the entire XRP allocation during Q4, which means the bank started buying XRP exposure within weeks of the first spot ETFs launching in November 2025.

The position is spread almost evenly across four issuers: roughly $40 million in the Bitwise XRP ETF, $38.5 million in the Franklin Templeton XRP Trust, $38 million in the Grayscale XRP ETF, and $36 million in the 21Shares XRP ETF. Banks don't spread $154 million evenly across four competing funds by accident, which shows this is a deliberate decision to diversify across issuers rather than bet on a single product.

XRP is also part of a broader $2.3 billion crypto portfolio Goldman Sachs holds entirely through spot ETFs. The bank has $1.1 billion in Bitcoin, $1 billion in Ethereum, $108 million in Solana, and $153.8 million in XRP. At 6.5% of the total crypto book, XRP isn't Goldman's biggest digital asset position. But it's the one that stands out given the timing, because Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs had been trading for over a year when Goldman added to those—and XRP ETFs were barely six weeks old.

The next closest institutional XRP holder is Millennium Management at $23 million, which is less than a sixth of Goldman's position. The top 30 institutional investors combined hold about $211 million in XRP ETF shares, and Goldman alone accounts for 73% of that total. Bloomberg analyst, James Seyffart, pointed out that these disclosed holdings only capture a small slice of the full picture, though, since roughly 84% of XRP ETF assets sit with retail investors who don't file 13F reports.

Who's Been Selling XRP and Why

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Glassnode data from early March shows roughly 36.8 billion XRP—about 60% of the circulating supply—sitting at a cost basis above the current market price. That's $50.8 billion in unrealized losses across the majority of holders.

The average cost basis for this group sits near $1.44, which explains why every time XRP pushes toward that level, sellers line up to exit at breakeven. The SOPR indicator, which tracks whether people are selling at a profit or a loss, dropped to 0.96 in March, meaning most XRP changing hands right now is being sold at a loss.

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Retail investors have been the most consistent sellers. In January, retail holders offloaded roughly 145 million XRP while whales on the other side were accumulating over $710 million worth. Korean exchanges like Upbit and Bithumb saw sharp drops in XRP reserves as smaller holders pulled out. Leveraged traders haven't fared better either, with over $70 million in long positions liquidated in a single February session.

Larger wallets have also been moving XRP onto exchanges since January. Around 3.8 billion XRP has flowed from whale-tier addresses into Binance over that stretch, and the pace picked up in February when 472 million XRP worth about $652 million hit the exchange in a single week. These were wallets that likely bought lower and were choosing to take profit or reposition while XRP is still above $1.30.

All of that selling has taken a toll. XRP ETF weekly inflows dropped from $80–$200 million in late 2025 to under $2 million per week by March, and last week the funds recorded $28 million in net outflows—their second-largest weekly redemption since launch. The Fear & Greed Index is at 15, and retail, whales, and now ETF holders have all been pulling back at the same time for most of 2026.

What's Changed for XRP Since Goldman Bought In

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Ripple Prime—the prime brokerage arm Ripple acquired for $1.25 billion when it bought Hidden Road—was added to the DTCC's NSCC clearing directory on March 2, 2026. The DTCC processes roughly $3.7 quadrillion in securities annually, and its 2025 patents specifically named Ripple and the XRP Ledger as compatible infrastructure for tokenized finance. Ripple's CTO, David Schwartz, responded to the listing with two words: "Seems important."

On March 11, Mastercard launched its Crypto Partner Program with over 85 companies, and Ripple was on the list alongside Binance, PayPal, and Circle. That same day, Ripple kicked off a $750 million share buyback that values the company at $50 billion—up 25% from the $40 billion round in November 2025. Also on March 11, the SEC and CFTC signed a landmark memorandum of understanding coordinating crypto oversight, which effectively treats XRP as a digital commodity for secondary market purposes.

The CLARITY Act also passed the House 294-134 and would formally codify XRP's commodity classification under federal law. Garlinghouse puts the odds at 80% by late April, and Polymarket gives it around 70% passing odds. If it clears the Senate before midterm season pushes Congress into campaign mode, the bill could unlock a wave of institutional participation that's been waiting for clear rules. Multiple sources suggest that NDA expirations tied to the bill's passage could trigger a round of partnership announcements from banks that have been working with Ripple quietly.

None of that has moved the XRP price yet though. XRP is down about 40% since December 31, when Goldman's filing snapshot was taken. There's also no guarantee the position reflects a bullish bet at all—13F filings can include shares held for market-making, client facilitation, or hedging rather than a directional call on the price.

What Goldman's Next Filing Will Tell Us

Goldman's Q1 2026 13F is due in May. If the bank held or added to its XRP position through a 40% drawdown, that would be one of the strongest institutional conviction signals XRP has seen, because holding through a 40% drop is a very different statement than buying near the top of a rally. If the position was trimmed or sold, Goldman was most likely providing liquidity to clients, not making a long-term bet on XRP.

What's clear right now is that Goldman was buying XRP through ETFs during Q4 2025 while retail has spent most of 2026 selling, and those two sides of the trade don't stay misaligned forever. Whether the bank still holds the full $153.8 million, added more on the way down, or trimmed the position during the crash is something only the next 13F in May will answer.

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Source: “AOL Money”