Expert Says XRP Price Has To Go Up, There Is No Plan B: Here’s Why

An XRP community pundit has shared why he believes XRP ETFs will likely scramble to buy XRP in the open market instead of from Ripple’s escrow.

The XRP ETFs have made their way to the market, and their early numbers have been rather impressive. For context, the Canary Capital XRP ETF (XRPC) emerged first on Nov. 13, commanding $245 million in debut inflows. Bitwise, Grayscale, and Franklin have since launched their own products.

XRP ETFs Seeing Impressive Figures

Notably, data from Sosovalue shows that the four existing XRP ETFs have recorded $643.92 million in cumulative net inflows over the past two weeks, with the latest intraday netflow figure from Nov. 26 being $21.81 million. However, the XRP price has not skyrocketed as much as some investors expected. 

For context, after a brief but sharp 13% upsurge between Nov. 23 and 24, XRP has faced resistance at the $2.2 price mark, consolidating at this level over the past three days. At the current price of $2.202, XRP is down 12.2% this month despite the ETF inflows. Nonetheless, market pundits believe the funds would eventually push prices up.

First Year for XRP ETFs Would be Aggressive 

One individual who has persistently championed this narrative is Chad Steingraber, a game developer and XRP community figure who has continued to track ETF developments. 

In one of his latest commentaries, he insisted that the ETFs could aggressively accumulate more XRP tokens and tried to debunk claims that when the XRP ETFs do buy XRP, they could procure the tokens from Ripple’s escrow.

Taking to X, he specifically suggested that the XRP ETFs would be “relentlessly aggressive” during the first year of trading. This aligns with his long-held belief that the products could attempt to drain the circulating XRP supply within a year.

In the first year, the XRP ETF funds will be relentlessly aggressive. There is only ONE way to slow them down…

The price HAS to go up.

There is no plan B.

— Chad Steingraber (@ChadSteingraber) November 27, 2025

Steingraber believes the only thing capable of stopping these funds from scooping up the entire XRP supply in circulation is for the price of XRP to surge higher to match the accumulation spree. For perspective, at $2.2, a $1 billion inflow would amass 454 million XRP tokens. However, if the price had surged to $6, the same $1 billion would have amassed only 166 million tokens.

“The price has to go up,” the market pundit said. He noted that besides this solution, there would be no Plan B. Notably, this commentary aligns with the trend Bitcoin ETFs observed last year. For context, in their first trading year, in 2024, the Bitcoin ETFs saw ten months of inflows and only two with outflows. Within this period, they scooped up over $35 billion worth of BTC, pushing prices up.

Why ETFs May Not Buy XRP from Ripple’s Escrow

Steingraber expects a similar pattern with XRP. However, some have suggested that even if the ETFs do amass XRP aggressively, they may purchase from Ripple’s escrow. For context, this practice could undermine the positive impact of the buying pressure on the XRP price by creating a demand-neutral environment. 

Specifically, if Ripple releases 300 million XRP tokens worth $660 million at current prices and these ETFs scoop them up, the impact on price would be minimal. Steingraber does not believe this would be the case.

In a subsequent commentary, he called attention to the fact that the authorized participants (APs) would need to purchase the underlying tokens within two days once the ETFs record inflows. Notably, they don’t have the time to wait for a “better deal” over the next few weeks through other avenues like Ripple escrow.

According to Steingraber, since the escrow releases on a particular basis, the APs may not be able to wait for each unlock before procuring the tokens. In order for the APs to buy from Ripple’s escrow, Ripple would need to release all 1 billion tokens for the month to Ripple Prime and wait for when the funds would need to procure XRP. 

Steingraber noted that if this happens, Ripple would have sold off their bags at just $2, forfeiting the potential gains they could get from holding onto the tokens until prices surge before selling them off. Steingraber believes this is largely unfeasible.