Spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) tied to XRP and Dogecoin made a strong market debut in the United States on Thursday, delivering the highest first-day trading volume of any ETF launched this year.
After weeks of being postponed, the REX-Osprey XRP ETF, listed on the Cboe exchange under the ticker XRPR, posted $37.7 million in trading volume on its first day. According to data cited by Bloomberg senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas, the volume is more than all other ETF launches in 2025 so far, outpacing even equity-focused funds.
$XRPR traded $37.7m on Day One, which edges out $IVES for the biggest day one (natural) $ volume of any 2025 launch. $DOJE is no slouch at $17m, which would be Top 5 for year.. out of 710 launches. Good sign for the onslaught of 33 Act ETFs coming soon.. pic.twitter.com/JaQP9ekFIq
— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) September 18, 2025
XRPR’s trading debut outperformed the Wedbush AI Revolution ETF (IVES), managed by analyst Dan Ives, which previously held the record.
Traders also welcomed the REX-Osprey Dogecoin ETF, listed under ticker DOJE, which drew in $17 million in opening-day volume. That placed DOJE among the five largest ETF debuts of the year, out of 710 total launches.
“DOJE is no slouch at $17 million, which would be Top 5 for year,” Balchunas wrote on X, “Good sign for the onslaught of 33 Act ETFs coming soon.”
XRP and DOGE spot ETFs launch came early
As reported by Cryptopolitan, both XRPR and DOJE are registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940, often referred to as the “40 Act.” The spot Bitcoin and Ethereum funds that hit the market last year were launched under a different law change procedure, the Securities Act of 1933, or “33 Act.”
Balchunas had told followers earlier on Thursday that the 40 Act structure could “diminish interest a bit relative to other crypto first evers.” Although it has a faster approval timeline, around 75 days compared with 240 days under the 33 Act, there are stricter limitations in place on what assets the funds can hold.
The ETFs cannot own the assets directly, so they have to invest in a Cayman Islands-based subsidiary that holds XRP or DOGE. They also allocate capital into foreign exchange-traded products based in Canada and Europe to mirror the price action of the underlying digital assets.
Before trading began, Balchunas predicted that DOJE would generate around $2.5 million in daily turnover, which he had coined “respectable but unremarkable.” That forecast was overtaken within the first hour of trading, when volumes had already reached nearly $6 million.
On the XRP front, Balchunas mentioned Rex XRP ETF’s volume after trading for one hour and thirty minutes was “way more than he would have thought.”
“For context, it’s 5x more than any of the XRP futures ETFs did on Day One, and it’s only been 90 minutes,” he concluded.
Ripple awaits bank license approval, and token price corrections continue
With the launch of a spot ETF, XRP’s market capitalization has dropped by about $7 billion since Wednesday. Still, some market participants believe it will go upwards if Ripple has positive news in the coming weeks.
The company behind XRP’s payments technology applied for a national banking license in early July with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), which is currently under review.
First-day net inflows for the DOGE and XRP funds are expected to be reported on Friday, but as for investors holding the tokens, there’s more doom than gloom. Dogecoin surged on Tuesday to a local peak of $0.3048 before entering a gradual decline. Since then, it has slipped by 10.2%, trending lower within a descending channel.
Over the last 24 hours, DOGE climbed to $0.2879, but it corrected back to $0.2737 at the time of this publication, according to Coingecko data.
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