XRP ETF News: BNY Adds XRP Custody as Funds Hold $1.47B
BNY can now hold XRP for institutional clients, a step up from the cash and accounting work it already does for two XRP ETFs. The funds' XRP still sits mainly with Coinbase Custody, and flows have stalled near $1.47 billion in assets.
What is the latest XRP ETF news?
On October 27, Ripple and BNY said BNY's Digital Asset Custody platform now supports XRP and RLUSD, Ripple's dollar stablecoin, so eligible institutional clients can hold and transfer both at the bank. The announcement builds on BNY's role as RLUSD's primary reserve custodian since July 2025. Two further pieces are plans, not live services: letting BNY clients mint and redeem RLUSD directly, and exploring tokenized trade finance on the XRP Ledger with C2FO. Ripple puts RLUSD at about $2.5 billion in market value.
The news landed in a quiet stretch for the funds. US spot XRP ETFs took in only about +$4.3 million last week, all of it net through Franklin's XRPZ, and opened this week with a −$3.6 million day at Bitwise's XRP, per SoSoValue data. Category assets are about $1.47 billion, with cumulative net inflows near $1.80 billion. The daily table is in this week's Solana and XRP ETF flows.
Who holds the XRP inside XRP ETFs?
Mostly Coinbase. The funds' own SEC filings name the token custodians:
| Fund | XRP custodian | BNY's role today |
|---|---|---|
| XRPZ (Franklin) | Coinbase Custody Trust Company | Administrator, transfer agent, cash custodian |
| XRP (Bitwise) | Coinbase Custody Trust Company | Administrator, transfer agent, cash custodian |
| GXRP (Grayscale) | Coinbase Custody (primary), Anchorage Digital (added) | None disclosed |
| TOXR (21Shares) | Coinbase Custody, Anchorage Digital, BitGo | None disclosed |
Franklin's 10-K flags the concentration directly: Coinbase serves as XRP custodian and prime execution agent for several competing XRP products. Grayscale's 8-K, filed September 29, added Anchorage to hold a portion of GXRP's XRP, with the sponsor deciding the split. That filing is the template for what BNY's news makes possible: a sponsor can add a second custodian without changing the fund.
Will BNY custody change XRP ETFs?
Not yet, and not by itself. No XRP ETF sponsor has filed to add BNY as a token custodian, and each filing says the sponsor may change or add custodians at its discretion but is under no obligation to. What changes is the option set. For XRPZ and Bitwise's XRP, BNY already calculates NAV, keeps the share register and holds the cash; adding the XRP itself would put more of the fund's plumbing at one bank and less at one exchange.
For holders, custody does not move the price or the fee. A spot trust's return is XRP's return minus its expense ratio, whoever holds the keys. What custody affects is tail risk: a hack, an insolvency or an outage at the custodian. Diversifying custodians, as Grayscale and 21Shares already have, narrows that risk; it does not create demand. Flows in this category still come down to a few authorized-participant orders: an earlier XRP flow note found one issuer supplying almost all of a week's creations, and last week was the same, with XRPZ carrying the total.
What it means for investors
Treat the BNY news as infrastructure, not a flow catalyst. If a sponsor adds BNY as custodian, it will show up first as an 8-K or prospectus supplement, like GXRP's Anchorage filing, and Pre-Tick's flows table is where any change in creations would appear.
The costs you control are unchanged. Pre-Tick's XRP vs XRPZ comparison prices the fee gap between the two BNY-administered funds at $1.50 per $1,000 a year (0.34% against 0.19%), and the full XRP ETF list covers the rest. Because XRP trades overnight while the funds are shut, the open is the other cost: Pre-Tick's pre-market estimate for XRPZ missed the official open by a median 0.05% in the sessions scored through October 26, per /accuracy. This is market analysis, not investment advice.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does BNY hold XRP for XRP ETFs?
Not the token, so far. BNY is administrator, transfer agent and cash custodian for Franklin's XRPZ and Bitwise's XRP, while Coinbase Custody holds their XRP. BNY's new XRP custody service gives sponsors the option to add it, but none has filed to do so.
Who is the custodian for XRP ETFs?
Coinbase Custody Trust Company holds XRP for XRPZ, Bitwise's XRP and Grayscale's GXRP. GXRP added Anchorage Digital as a second custodian, and 21Shares' TOXR names Coinbase, Anchorage and BitGo.
Are XRP ETFs seeing inflows?
Barely. Spot XRP ETFs took in about $4.3 million last week and started this week with a $3.6 million outflow, against roughly $1.47 billion in assets, per SoSoValue data.
Sources
- Ripple — Ripple and BNY Expand Custody and Tokenized Trade Finance — 2026-10-27
- Ripple — Ripple Selects BNY to Custody Ripple USD Reserves — 2025-07-09
- The Block — Ripple, BNY explore using the XRP Ledger to finance approved invoices — 2026-10-27
- SEC — Franklin XRP Trust 10-K
- SEC — Bitwise XRP ETF 424B3
- SEC — Grayscale XRP Trust ETF 8-K (Anchorage custody) — 2026-09-29
- SEC — 21Shares XRP ETF S-1/A
- SoSoValue — US spot XRP ETF flows (via Pre-Tick /flows)
Educational and informational only. Pre-Tick does not provide investment advice.
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