XRP wipes out massive $20 billion in a day after bizarre SEC ETF decision

XRP’s market capitalization has plunged by almost $20 billion amid rising regulatory uncertainty and broad market turbulence.

Notably, the market has dropped by $18.37 billion within 24 hours, falling from $208.77 billion to $190.4 billion as of press time. The sharp drop also saw XRP’s price fall 9.6% to $3.21, despite a 6.1% gain over the past seven days.

The sell-off was amplified by an extreme liquidation imbalance, where $37.85 million in long positions were liquidated, compared to just $360,000 in shorts, a 10,409% disparity.

This sharp imbalance, triggered forced selling, revealing the market’s overexposure to bullish leverage. Long positions were, on average, 100 times larger than shorts, making prices highly sensitive to even minor downward moves.

‘Bizarre’ XRP ETF decision

The drop was further fueled by a sudden regulatory reversal where the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) abruptly halted the conversion of Bitwise’s 10 Crypto Index Fund into an ETF on July 22, which would have included XRP.

The move came just hours after the SEC’s Division of Trading and Markets granted initial approval.

The fund is heavily weighted toward Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), with the remainder allocated to altcoins such as Solana (SOL), XRP, Cardano (ADA) among others. It manages over a billion in assets and is rebalanced monthly.

To this end, ETF analyst Nate Geraci called the about-face “bizarre,” noting a similar sequence had played out with the Grayscale Digital Large Cap ETF (GDLC), where early greenlights were followed by unexplained pauses. This is particularly puzzling given the SEC’s recently stated pro-crypto stance under its new leadership.

Analysts have warned that spot XRP ETFs could remain stuck in regulatory limbo until the SEC finalizes a new unified listing framework. While some anticipate approval delays into late 2025, confidence remains.

On prediction platform Polymarket, traders still assign an 85% probability that an XRP spot ETF will be approved by year-end.

Bitwise’s spot XRP ETF, first filed in October 2024, awaits a final SEC decision by October 20, 2025. Until then, XRP remains at the mercy of shifting regulatory winds and market sentiment.

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