Coinbase’s XRP reserves have collapsed by almost 90% in the past three months, according to new on-chain data compiled by XRPWallet from XRPscan.
At the start of the summer, the U.S. exchange controlled approximately 970 million XRP across 52 cold wallets. Ten of those wallets each held 26.8 million tokens, while the remaining 42 wallets combined for another 16.8 million. The scale of these holdings made Coinbase one of the most visible custodians of XRP in the market.
By mid-September, however, the picture looks dramatically different. Only six wallets remain active, each containing roughly 16.5 million XRP (September 13), leaving the total at just under 99 million XRP, a level not seen in years.
XRP holdings on Coinbase see major outflow
Specifically, the drop marks an 89.79% decline from June’s tally, the result of steady outflows throughout the summer as coins were moved from Coinbase cold storage to external destinations.
One of the latest large transfers occurred over the weekend, when 16.5 million XRP worth $51.4 million shifted back into a Coinbase-controlled wallet. The transaction immediately fueled speculation among traders, who continue to debate whether institutional buyers, including large asset managers, could be accumulating XRP through private arrangements.
The challenge is that on-chain data reveals only the depletion of Coinbase balances, not the final destination of the assets. It remains unclear whether the withdrawn XRP is being shifted to alternative custody providers, private vaults, or new trading routes, especially amongst the last XRP ETF hype and BlackRock rumours.
Despite the uncertainty surrounding Coinbase’s shrinking role in XRP custody, the token itself remains firmly positioned as the world’s third-largest cryptocurrency, trailing only Bitcoin and Ethereum, with a market capitalization of around $181 billion at the time of publication.
The sudden reduction in Coinbase’s visible holdings, however, has raised broader questions about how institutional demand is being managed, where the XRP is ultimately flowing, and whether the redistribution signals a structural shift in how the asset is traded and stored.
