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Big investors are still betting crypto—and it’s not just Bitcoin in their sights.
Institutional investors have poured cash into Ripple (XRP)—the fifth-largest digital asset by market cap—for the 16th week running, according to a Monday report from digital assets investment firm CoinShares.
Assets under management for XRP products have also risen 127% since the beginning of the year, the report noted. CoinShares Head of Research James Butterfill told Decrypt that $11.25 million worth of investor money has been put into XRP since the start of 2023.
The reason for apparently optimism is due to recent developments in the saga between Ripple Labs and regulators. In 2020, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) hit Ripple with a $1.3 billion lawsuit, alleging that it had misled investors and sold unregistered securities in the form of XRP.
But a federal district judge last month wrote in a partial ruling that programmatic sales of XRP to retail investors did not qualify as securities.
The judge did, however, say that $728 million worth of contracts for institutional sales did constitute unregistered securities sales. Even so, investors—and Ripple Labs—broadly interpreted the ruling as positive.
The price of the asset has since surged after already being on the rise this year. Ripple’s General Counsel Stu Alderoty said he expected U.S. banks to go back to using the fintech firm’s On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) product.
CoinShares’ report added that institutional investors plugged $29 million last week into digital asset investment products, “likely due to the recent US inflation data, which was slightly below expectations, signifying that a September rate hike is less likely.”
The firm added that Bitcoin remains the primary focus, with $27 million flowing into large funds designed for accredited investors, including Grayscale, 3iQ, and 21 Shares.