NEW YORK, Jan 8, 2026, 10:28 EST — Regular session
XRP fell about 5% on Thursday to around $2.09, extending a pullback in major cryptocurrencies after a hot start to 2026. Trading volume over the past 24 hours was about $4.6 billion, CoinMarketCap data showed. 1
The XRP price move mattered because one of the big props under the rally — steady demand for U.S.-listed spot XRP exchange-traded funds — showed its first crack. Spot ETFs, which trade like stocks and aim to track XRP’s price, saw roughly $41 million of net outflows on Wednesday, according to SoSoValue data cited by FXStreet. 2
The broader tape was soft. Bitcoin was down about 2% near $90,500 and ether slid about 4%, as investors took profits and U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs recorded about $486 million of net outflows on Wednesday, Barron’s reported. 3
Outflows do not automatically mean a trend has turned, but they can signal short-term de-risking after a sharp run. For XRP, it also tests a simple narrative traders had leaned on: that ETF buying would keep absorbing supply as prices rose.
Just two days ago, inflows into U.S. spot XRP ETFs hit $46 million in a single session and there had not been an outflow day since the products debuted in mid-November, Barron’s said, citing CoinGlass data. 4
XRP’s pullback comes after the token ran to about $2.40 on Tuesday before slipping back, according to Finance Magnates. CNBC’s Mackenzie Sigalos said on air the flow pattern looked “the exact opposite” of spot bitcoin and ether ETFs, where money typically “move[s] in tandem” with the coin’s price. 5
Crypto-linked equities tracked the shifts in sentiment too. Shares of Strategy — the largest corporate holder of bitcoin — rose 3.9% on Wednesday after MSCI said it would not exclude crypto-treasury firms from its indexes, Barron’s reported. 6
A key risk is that the ETF wobble becomes more than a one-day event. If outflows persist, traders may read it as fading marginal demand just as risk appetite is being tested by macro data and rates.
The next catalyst is Friday’s U.S. employment report for December, due at 8:30 a.m. ET, a release that can swing rate-cut expectations and, in turn, high-volatility assets like crypto.
