To Avoid Price Gaps, OTC Market Makers Are Quietly Buying XRP: Analyst

An XRP community pundit has suggested that private OTC market makers may be rapidly buying XRP in anticipation of ETF acquisition needs.

Chad Steingraber, a professional game designer, made this assertion after he observed unusual spikes in volumes belonging to the Canary Capital XRP ETF (XRPC), which began trading five days ago. For context, XRPC launched on Nov. 13 as the first pure spot XRP ETF in the U.S., impressing the market with its debut performance.

Data confirms that on its debut, XRPC recorded $245 million worth of inflows and a volume of over $59 million, marginally outpacing Bitwise’s Solana ETF (BSOL). Since then, Steingraber has continued to track its volume performance, identifying sudden spikes that have triggered investor interest.

Canary XRP ETF Seeing Volume Spikes

For instance, yesterday, Steingraber pointed out that XRPC opened the week with a buy volume spike involving 84,103 shares at 9:30 AM EST. At the then price of $24.4 per share, this volume amounted to $2.056 million. 

However, this did not only represent buy volume, but total trading volume, which also includes sales. Data shows that after Steingraber’s disclosure, the volume spiked further to 103,323 shares worth $2.5 million.

Meanwhile, the game designer also called attention to the fact that during the first hour of trading, XRPC observed a volume of 304,863 shares valued at $7.45 million. 

Considering the impressive trend at the start of the day, he estimated the fund to witness a total volume of up to 1.9 million shares worth $48 million yesterday. He then projected the XRP ETF to buy 11 million XRP from this volume but failed to present how he arrived at this figure. However, XRPC closed the day with a volume of 860,300 shares worth around $20 million.

OTC Market Makers May be Rapidly Buying XRP

As Steingraber continued to identify these surges, one commenter noted that the volume spikes on Yahoo Finance seem to align with similar surges observed on the XRP chart on Coinbase. The individual asked if this pattern was normal.

Responding, Steingraber admitted that he wasn’t sure. However, he suggested that the volume spikes could be the direct result of over-the-counter (OTC) market makers rapidly purchasing XRP. Notably, such a purchase spree may occur as these market makers position themselves for potential ETF acquisition needs.

We can’t know for sure, but it could be that private OTC market makers are buying XRP anticipating the acquisition needs.

They don’t want a huge price difference between their share price and the asset, if they wait and buy a day, two days later.. it could cost them. https://t.co/AGpY5OWaxi

— Chad Steingraber (@ChadSteingraber) November 17, 2025

According to Steingraber, they may not want a significant price difference between the XRP price at purchase and the price of their shares. He suggested that if these market makers delay their purchases by a day or two, the price difference at that time could be unfavorable for them.

However, while the premise seems sound, Steingraber’s assumption has some shortcomings. Specifically, there is no guarantee that the volume spikes, whether on the Coinbase XRP chart or the XRPC chart, came from only buy orders. Notably, the surges come from total trading volume, not just buys. 

Despite this, market data confirms that XRPC has indeed been seeing impressive stats after its initial debut success. Notably, data from Sosovalue confirms that on Nov. 17, the product recorded $25.4 million worth of inflows, joining its Solana counterparts to buck the overall bearish trend in the market.