Key Takeaways
- Purpose Investments filed a preliminary prospectus with the OSC in late June 2026 for the Purpose XRP ETF, expected to trade on the TSX under the ticker XRPP.
- XRP’s legal status was clarified in the US in 2024 following Ripple’s partial victory against the SEC; Canadian regulators have treated XRP as a commodity asset rather than a security.
- The proposed ETF would hold physical XRP in cold storage with Gemini Trust as sub-custodian, mirroring the custody structure of BTCC and ETHH.
- XRP’s primary use case is cross-border payment settlement, with Ripple’s On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) network processing over US$5 billion in monthly transaction volume as of Q2 2026.
- Management fee is expected at 0.70–0.85% annually, in line with other Canadian altcoin ETF products.
Purpose Investments, the firm that launched the world’s first Bitcoin ETF in February 2021 with BTCC, filed a preliminary prospectus with the Ontario Securities Commission in late June 2026 for a new product: the Purpose XRP ETF. If approved and industry observers expect it will be, given the OSC’s established framework for crypto ETFs it would give Canadian investors regulated access to XRP inside RRSP, TFSA, and non-registered accounts for the first time.
The filing is significant for several reasons beyond the specific asset. It confirms that the Canadian regulatory infrastructure built around Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs is being extended to altcoins, and that XRP specifically has reached a threshold of legal clarity and market maturity that the OSC considers acceptable for retail product approval.
XRP’s Complicated Legal History and Its Resolution
Any serious discussion of XRP as an investable asset requires acknowledging its legal history. In December 2020, the US Securities and Exchange Commission filed suit against Ripple Labs, alleging that XRP was an unregistered security. The lawsuit cast a shadow over XRP for nearly four years, causing major US exchanges to delist it and creating significant regulatory uncertainty globally.
The resolution came in stages. A July 2023 ruling by Judge Analisa Torres found that XRP sold on secondary markets to retail investors did not constitute an investment contract a partial but meaningful victory for Ripple. By early 2024, the SEC and Ripple reached a broader settlement, with Ripple paying US$125 million in penalties (far less than the US$2 billion the SEC originally sought) and the court affirming that programmatic XRP sales did not meet the Howey test for securities status.
In Canada, the regulatory picture was always somewhat cleaner. The CSA and OSC treated XRP as a commodity-like digital asset rather than a security, though platforms were required to meet certain investor protection conditions for listing it. CIRO-registered dealers have been able to offer XRP trading since 2022.
The ETF Mechanics
Based on the preliminary prospectus filing, the Purpose XRP ETF would operate on the same physical-holding model as BTCC and ETHH. XRP purchased by the fund would be held in cold storage through Gemini Trust Company as sub-custodian, with Purpose Investments as trustee and manager. Unlike some ETF structures that use futures or derivatives for price exposure, the Canadian crypto ETF framework requires physical asset holding a feature that Canadian regulators view as superior for investor protection.
The management expense ratio is expected to fall in the range of 0.70–0.85% annually. This is slightly higher than BTCC’s current 0.40% MER (which was reduced from 1.0% as AUM scaled), reflecting the higher operational complexity of a less liquid underlying asset. XRP’s daily trading volume on regulated global exchanges is approximately US$2–3 billion, well above the liquidity thresholds the OSC uses for ETF approval, but below Bitcoin and Ethereum’s much deeper markets.
The Canadian Crypto ETF Comparison
| ETF | Ticker | Asset | AUM (approx.) | MER | Launch Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Purpose Bitcoin ETF | BTCC.TO | Bitcoin | C$4.2B | 0.40% | 2021 |
| CI Galaxy Bitcoin ETF | BTCX.TO | Bitcoin | C$1.8B | 0.40% | 2021 |
| Purpose Ether ETF | ETHH.TO | Ethereum | C$820M | 0.45% | 2021 |
| CI Galaxy Ethereum ETF | ETHX.TO | Ethereum | C$580M | 0.40% | 2021 |
| Purpose XRP ETF (filed) | XRPP.TO | XRP | N/A | ~0.75% | Expected Q3 2026 |
Does XRP Belong in a Canadian Portfolio?
XRP’s investment thesis differs meaningfully from Bitcoin and Ethereum. Bitcoin is primarily a store-of-value and inflation hedge narrative. Ethereum is a platform for decentralized applications with staking yield. XRP’s value proposition is narrower and more utility-dependent: it is designed to facilitate cross-border payment settlement, and its value is partially linked to the volume and growth of Ripple’s ODL network.
This makes XRP a more idiosyncratic risk than BTC or ETH. Its price is correlated with broader crypto market conditions but also driven by Ripple-specific developments new ODL partnerships, regulatory changes in key markets like Japan and Southeast Asia, and competition from SWIFT’s own blockchain initiatives. Canadian investors should think of XRP as a bet on Ripple’s enterprise payment business succeeding at scale, layered on top of general crypto market exposure.
For a portfolio already holding BTC and ETH, a small XRP allocation (perhaps 5–10% of total crypto exposure) could provide diversification across different crypto use case narratives. The ETF wrapper will make that allocation more accessible for the vast majority of Canadian investors who prefer regulated vehicles over direct crypto platform accounts.
The Bottom Line
Purpose’s XRP ETF filing marks another step in the maturation of Canada’s crypto ETF market, extending the regulated product infrastructure beyond the Bitcoin and Ethereum duopoly. XRP’s specific investment case is more nuanced and utility-dependent than BTC or ETH, making it better suited as a smaller, complementary position within a broader crypto allocation rather than a core holding. Once approved and trading on the TSX, it will provide a genuinely useful registered account vehicle for Canadian investors who want XRP exposure without navigating crypto platform accounts.