XRP Holders Surge 100% in 6 Months – Flips Solana in Race for Adoption

XRP just pulled off a staggering growth spurt – its holder count nearly doubled since January, leaving Solana in the dust. The 'banker's crypto' now flexes grassroots demand even as Wall Street sniffs at utility tokens.

From underdog to overachiever

While SOL stans were busy hyping NFT drops, XRP quietly onboarded more users than a Solana validator during peak congestion. The numbers don’t lie – this isn’t just a pump, it’s a protocol gaining real traction.

The institutional elephant in the room

Funny how a coin once written off by crypto purists now thrives while ‘institutional darling’ SOL chases retail. Maybe blockchain bridges beat blockchain bros after all. Just don’t tell the VC funds still bag-holding SOL at 90% off ATH.

ETF expectations drove the pivot

The report linked the allocation swing to exchange-traded fund (ETF) expectations, noting that Polymarket traders assign a 90% probability of approval by year-end 2025. 

It added that the redirection of SOL exposure to XRP was not a MOVE made only by retail investors, as institutions also made the same decision during the first half of the year. 

The study covered active traders between October 2024 and May 2025. Active traders were those who executed at least 20 transactions per month. 

Additionally, the report classified participants into institutional, VIP, and general retail tiers to track wallet behavior across market segments.

Bitcoin and Ethereum still reign

Stablecoin allocations also declined in May, as users allocated fresh capital to Bitcoin and Ethereum. Yet, XRP maintained its expanded share. 

The report highlighted that bitcoin controlled nearly 31% of assets, while BTC and ETH combined reached 58.8% of non-stablecoin holdings during the same month. 

XRP’s advancement, coupled with Solana’s retreat, caps a period in which altcoins overall ceded ground to Bitcoin. Altcoin share peaked at 35.22% in November 2024 before easing to 23.46% in May 2025, the same month that Bitcoin registered its latest all-time high.

Lastly, traders pulled stablecoin balances off the sidelines and redeployed them into BTC and ETH in May. 

Institutional accounts cut their stablecoin share by 14% from April, steering roughly 6% each to Bitcoin and Ether and one point to Solana, with smaller flows rounding out the remainder.

This movement reversed the defensive build-up that followed earlier market dips.