Data shows crypto exchange Coinbase has made a surprising shift in its XRP holdings by reducing its stash from more than 780 million XRP to around 200 million in a matter of weeks. According to data from XRPScan, Coinbase’s total XRP holdings have fallen by a massive 69% from its most recent proof of reserve report. Notably, this cutback comes at a time when institutional players like BlackRock are increasingly intertwined with Coinbase’s operations
Coinbase Slashes XRP Holdings
Once the fifth-largest exchange holder of XRP, Coinbase has now slipped to tenth place after reducing its balance from approximately 780.13 million XRP to 199.47 million. This represents a staggering 69% reduction since the second quarter of 2025, with a 57% plunge in just the past month. Such a huge cutback in Coinbase’s XRP holdings within a short period of time can only be attributed to outflows from institutional investors.
At the time of writing, Coinbase has 11 cold wallets remaining, each holding 16.5 million XRP tokens. This is a massive fall from early June numbers of 52 cold Coinbase wallets holding a total of 970 million XRP, according to XRPwallets, an XRP commentator account on the social media platform X. Interestingly, XRPwallets also hinted at the possibility of these huge movements being linked to BlackRock.
BlackRock is a suspect due to the nature of its recent collaboration with Coinbase. That collaboration, which was announced in early August, was done to allow institutional investors easy access to digital assets directly through Coinbase. Although Bitcoin was initially the focus, the partnership has most likely expanded to XRP due to its growing demand among institutional investors.
XRPwallets Suggests Retail Dominance In Exchanges
Right now, all that’s left in Coinbase’s XRP wallets might be mostly XRP held by retail traders. XRPwallets also speculated that other major exchanges, such as Uphold, Binance, and Upbit, could eventually show similar balances, around 200 million XRP each, once Ripple’s distributions move through the system. By their estimates, this would leave about 1 billion XRP across exchanges and another 900 million resting in retail cold wallets.
Although the numbers were framed as guesses, they relate to the idea that institutional channels are absorbing XRP, leaving exchanges increasingly as platforms for retail activity. Interestingly, other crypto exchanges like Upbit and Uphold have also seen their XRP holdings fall massively within the same time period as Coinbase. Upbit, for instance, saw its XRP balance fall from 6.03 billion XRP to 5.84 billion XRP. Uphold, on the other hand, saw its XRP balance fall from 1.907 billion XRP to 1.746 billion XRP.
XRP is still trading below the $3 resistance level after repeated rejections this month, which has left the crypto’s near-term trajectory in question. Reduced exchange balances often point to decreasing sell pressure, which could help support price stability. At the time of writing, XRP is trading at $2.83, up by 0.8% in the past 24 hours.
Featured image from Getty Images, chart from Tradingview.com
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