If you needed another sign that crypto ETFs have fully crossed the Rubicon from speculative sidelines to institutional mainstage, Canary Capital just delivered it. The digital asset–focused investment firm has revealed that its Canary XRP ETF (Nasdaq: XRPC) now boasts over $336 million in assets under management, making it the largest U.S.-listed spot XRP ETF as of November 26, 2025—outpacing all of its competitors combined.

That’s no small feat for a product launched only earlier this month. In fact, it barreled out of the gate with $59 million in first-day trading volume, setting a 2025 record for the strongest debut of any ETF this year. For a sector still navigating regulatory curveballs and lingering skepticism from traditional finance, that kind of early momentum tends to speak louder than a dozen industry panels.

“What we’re seeing with XRPC is more than early adoption, it’s validation of where investor demand is heading,” said Steven McClurg, CEO and Founder of Canary Capital. “Investors are choosing XRPC as a preferred vehicle for exposure to one of the most foundational digital assets.”

That sentiment touches on something deeper happening in the digital asset ETF landscape: markets are no longer simply reacting to crypto cycles—they’re institutionalizing them.

The Making of a Breakout ETF

The core attraction behind XRPC is straightforward: direct, regulated access to XRP, the native token of the XRP Ledger. While crypto natives have been using XRP for years as a classic cross-border liquidity tool (and recently for tokenization and settlement rails), institutional investors historically lacked a clean, compliant, exchange-traded pathway to participate.

XRPC fills that gap with an ETF wrapper familiar to every wealth manager, pension allocator, and RIA in the U.S.

Its initial numbers underscore what the market has been hinting at: demand for exposure to large-cap digital assets goes far beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum—especially as enterprises and banks re-evaluate infrastructure like the XRP Ledger for payments, tokenization layers, and settlement-specific workflows.

In other words: the crypto ETF race is no longer a two-asset game.

Why XRP—and Why Now?

XRP’s resurgence in institutional circles isn’t accidental. A combination of regulatory developments, expanding cross-border payment use cases, and renewed attention on decentralized infrastructure optimized for settlement speed has refocused attention on the asset.

Unlike many L1 networks designed as general-purpose compute ecosystems, the XRP Ledger’s design caters to real-time value transfer, making it a strong candidate for use cases that hinge on speed and predictability rather than programmability.

That’s been enough for institutional allocators—traditionally conservative, often rule-bound—to take a second look. And where big allocators go, ETF flows tend to follow.

Canary simply arrived at the right time with the right product.

Canary Capital’s Broader Play: Utility-Driven ETFs

XRPC isn’t the firm’s only headline. Earlier this quarter, Canary launched Canary HBAR ETF (Nasdaq: HBR)—the first and only U.S.-listed ETF offering spot exposure to HBAR, the native token of the Hedera network.

HBR has already cleared $65 million in assets, a notable milestone given HBAR’s position outside the usual “top two” spotlight.

While XRP is synonymous with payment rails, HBAR brings a different flavor of utility:

• High-throughput performance
• Low environmental footprint
• Enterprise-centric governance via the Hedera Governing Council
• Real-world deployment across supply chain, settlement, sustainability, and compliance workflows

Canary’s messaging is clear: the firm isn’t simply launching broad-market crypto ETFs. It’s targeting infrastructure tokens—the kind with actual usage metrics, enterprise adoption, and non-speculative functions in digital value flows.

That positions Canary in a different strategic lane than issuers who focus primarily on speculative momentum or retail hype cycles.

The ETF Market Context: A New Phase of Maturity

To understand the significance of Canary’s rise, it helps to zoom out.

The digital asset ETF landscape has undergone dramatic changes since the first U.S. Bitcoin ETFs emerged. Post-approval of Ether, Solana, and now a wave of infrastructure-token ETFs, the market has entered a utility-oriented phase:

• Investors want blockchain assets with real enterprise adoption.
• ETF issuers are racing to differentiate on utility, not just brand recognition.
• Regulators have become more predictable—if not always lenient—creating clearer lanes for compliant products.

Against that backdrop, Canary’s success looks less like luck and more like a shrewd reading of institutional appetite.

XRPC’s strong first-day trading volume

$59 million is a nontrivial number, even in a crowded ETF environment. For context:

• Many thematic equity ETFs never hit that threshold.
• Only a handful of crypto-linked ETFs have surpassed it in their opening sessions.
• It signals not retail mania, but institutional preparedness—allocators who were waiting for exactly this product.

That implies deeper, stickier flows could follow.

Breaking Down the Investor Appeal

Institutional investors often care less about a token’s meme-worthiness and more about whether it sits within a functional, high-uptime, regulatory-stable ecosystem.

Both XRP and HBAR check those boxes:

XRP Ledger

• Designed for payment and settlement
• Time-tested decentralization and reliability
• Expanding tokenization layers
• Global institutional adoption for cross-border flows

Hedera

• Governing council of global enterprises
• High throughput and low latency
• Carbon-negative infrastructure
• Growing footprint in corporate sustainability, supply chain, and fintech rails

For ETF allocators seeking diversification outside the Bitcoin-Ethereum duopoly, these assets fit neatly within mandates that emphasize network utility and enterprise integrations.

That’s a niche Canary seems determined to dominate.

Canary’s Strategy: Not Just Access—Utility and Rigor

The firm frames its expanding suite of ETFs as part of a mission to pair market access with real-world utility. That’s a subtle but important distinction in a market historically defined by speculative manias and collapses.

Where some issuers rely heavily on branding or trading volume, Canary is stitching together a portfolio that reflects:

• Enterprise adoption trends
• Infrastructure tokens tied to real economies
• Compliance-forward structures
• Institutional-grade custody and reporting standards

If the first decade of crypto ETFs was driven by novelty, the second looks poised to be driven by utility—and Canary is building around that thesis.

So What Comes Next?

For Canary:
Expect more ETFs targeting infrastructure coins—possibly in networks tied to settlement, identity, real-world assets, or interoperability layers.

For U.S. regulators:
AUM growth on compliant, non-Bitcoin ETFs may pressure the SEC to further clarify approval standards across other utility tokens.

For competing issuers:
The race is officially on. Being the first to market matters, but being first to scale matters even more.

For the digital asset market:
The success of XRPC and HBR signals that institutional demand is evolving. Asset selection is becoming more sophisticated—and more connected to what enterprises actually use blockchain for.

And for investors:
The days of only having Bitcoin or Ethereum ETF options are over. The next wave will likely reflect the diversity of blockchain utility itself.

Final Thoughts

Canary Capital’s XRPC isn’t just a successful ETF launch—it’s a bellwether for where the U.S. digital asset ETF ecosystem is heading. Strong day-one volume, rapid AUM growth, and a clear thematic strategy across XRP and HBAR suggest that the next era of crypto ETFs will emphasize networks that do something, not merely those that trade well.

Whether you’re bullish, bearish, or just ETF-curious, one thing is clear: the market is shifting toward substance, and Canary intends to be at the front of that pack.