XRP Falls Below BNB in Q1 2026 Rankings, but New Institutional Data Shows Bullish Signs
May 31, 2026
XRP found itself in a challenging position at the close of the first quarter of 2026, with a price of $1.34, marking a significant decrease of 27.1%. This decline led to XRP losing its spot as the fourth-largest digital asset, falling behind BNB in rankings. The market cap for XRP stood at $82.21 billion by the end of the quarter, with a circulating supply that had risen by 1.1% to 61.34 billion, highlighting the challenges faced by the popular cryptocurrency in early 2026. These results were part of the latest Messari report, indicating that XRP finished the quarter slightly below the total market capitalization of top cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, ethereum, and BNB, which collectively saw a QoQ decrease of 23.3%.
Despite the setbacks, there were some positive points amid the turbulence for XRP. In the first half of May, XRP briefly climbed back to $1.50 before losing most of those gains by the end of the month, leaving its market cap relatively stable. One notable aspect was the significant drop in transaction fees for XRP, which decreased by almost 40% QoQ. The reduction in transaction fees, both in USD and XRP, was a noteworthy development outlined in the Messari report. This decline in transaction fees on the XRPL, which are systematically burned, has created deflationary pressure on the total supply of XRP, capped at 100 billion. Since the inception of the XRP Ledger, approximately 14.3 million XRP tokens, equivalent to $19.2 million at the quarter’s close, have been burned, reflecting the protocol’s low transaction fees.
While prices may have been under pressure, XRP saw growth in other areas. XRP spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) achieved an impressive milestone in the first quarter of 2026, reaching $1 billion in assets under management within four weeks. These U.S.-based XRP ETFs held 775.4 million XRP, making up 1.26% of the circulating supply, with a peak of 810.2 million XRP held on March 3, 2026. Notably, Canary Capital’s XRPC led the pack among U.S. spot ETFs, closing the quarter with 197.1 million XRP held. Additionally, institutional investors embraced XRP through the digital asset treasury (DAT) strategy, with corporate entity Evernorth holding the most significant share of XRP tokens, acquiring 388 million XRP at an average price of $2.44.
Ripple’s stablecoin, RLUSD, also reported significant growth in the first quarter of 2026, reaching a market capitalization of $340.3 million on the XRPL, marking a notable 45% increase QoQ and becoming the network’s largest stablecoin by market cap. The XRPL itself closed the quarter with an impressive all-time high real-world asset (RWA) market cap of $2.25 billion, positioning the network for future expansion and growth in the cryptocurrency ecosystem. These developments offer a glimpse into the complex landscape of the crypto market, where fluctuating prices and emerging trends define the trajectory of digital assets like XRP.
