Steven McClurg, CEO of Canary Capital, has said that XRP could outperform Solana once its exchange-traded fund (ETF) is launched, particularly in terms of inflows and trading volume.
In a recent interview, McClurg responded to a question comparing Solana’s strong ETF debut to what might be expected from XRP, stating that the token would probably double what Solana did in its first week of ETF trading.
His comments are part of a growing confidence in XRP’s institutional positioning among crypto investors as the crypto industry prepares for the next phase of ETF approvals.
XRP’s Institutional Positioning Gives It An Edge Over Solana
McClurg explained that the altcoin’s structure as a financial service will give it a decisive advantage once its ETF goes live. Although XRP’s market capitalization is only about 50% higher than Solana’s, he believes its institutional presence will lead to institutional inflows into its ETFs that could be “100% or even 200% higher” than Solana’s.
He described XRP as an asset that appeals to financial institutions and enterprise investors rather than retail traders, emphasizing that this characteristic will allow its ETF to attract deeper, long-term capital. Solana, by contrast, was described as a token with greater retail exposure, supported mostly by trading activity rather than institutional demand.
To support his outlook, McClurg referred to the performance of the recently launched HBAR ETF, which drew $70 million in inflows within just three days of listing.
HBAR’s market cap and trading volume are relatively very low compared to other large market cap cryptocurrencies, but it was able to attract notable inflows into its ETF products. McClurg attributed this success to its recognition among enterprise and institutional investors. The altcoin could follow a similar pattern, as both tokens share a reputation for being used within established financial frameworks.
Solana’s ETF Success Sets A Benchmark
Spot XRP ETFs are yet to hit the market, but Solana is already up and running with Spot ETFs from Bitwise and Grayscale. These Spot Solana ETFs are currently on 11 consecutive days of inflows, amounting to $199.21 million in their first week and $136.50 million in the second.
Although these figures are low compared to how Spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs performed in their first week, they are notable because they come at a period when both Bitcoin and Ethereum are witnessing outflows from their respective ETFs. These highlight the scale of investor appetite for digital asset ETFs and set a high bar for XRP to surpass.
Several funds are expected to launch in November 2025, following their recent listing on the DTCC platform. Canary Capital’s Spot XRP ETF is slated to launch on Nasdaq on November 13th, followed by others from firms like Franklin Templeton, 21Shares, Bitwise, and CoinShares. While DTCC listings confirm the operational infrastructure is in place, the ETFs still require final SEC approval, which is currently being delayed due to the ongoing government shutdown.
