ProShares Ultra XRP ETF plunges 95%, spot ETFs also hit by XRP market slump

UXRP struggles highlight razor-sharp risks of leverage

As of early August 2026, UXRP was trading around $10.30, marking a steep drop of approximately 95.5% from its 52-week high of $231.20. This plunge outpaced XRP’s own slide, as the digital asset hovered around $1, according to CoinGecko.

UXRP is structured to magnify XRP’s daily price changes using derivatives. Unlike traditional ETFs, leveraged funds like this are specifically tailored for daily trading and are not suited to long-term investors. The ETF’s leverage resets at the end of each trading day, which can lead to long-term performance diverging sharply from the underlying cryptocurrency.

This divergence results from volatility drag—also called beta slippage—where leveraged ETFs lose ground in unsettled or sideways trading conditions.

Mini dictionary: Volatility drag (beta slippage), a compounding effect in leveraged ETFs where returns trail both the leveraged and unleveraged assets when market conditions are volatile, due to the daily resetting of leverage.

UXRP amplifies XRP’s daily moves via derivatives, but its long-term performance can lag far behind XRP itself due to volatility drag—making it unsuitable for buy-and-hold investors.

Leveraged ETFs like UXRP are widely used by active traders or quantitative investors seeking to capitalize on short-term price swings. Despite this, a niche group of retail traders and traders involved in the Financial Independence, Retire Early (FIRE) movement have occasionally chosen to hold leveraged funds, sometimes achieving outsized gains in bull markets, like those seen with the TQQQ (3x leveraged Nasdaq-100 ETF) from 2010 to 2021. However, leveraged funds can underperform over time if markets remain volatile or move against their position.

Spot XRP ETFs experience tough year as market weakens

Spot XRP ETFs have also suffered throughout 2026, in line with broad weakness in the digital asset market. The arrival and approval of these spot ETFs in late 2025 was regarded as a landmark in cryptocurrency regulation, giving both institutional and retail investors regulated access to XRP without having to manage digital wallets or private keys.

Since their rollout, spot XRP ETFs have attracted $1.5 billion in cumulative initial inflows. Despite healthy early interest, the subsequent downturn in XRP’s price has put significant pressure on these products.

All leading spot XRP ETFs have posted year-to-date losses of more than 40% as of August 2026, with the market downturn affecting all major players.

The Bitwise XRP ETF, holding about $304 million in assets under management, has dropped around 43.2% since the start of the year. Canary Capital’s XRPC fund, which manages nearly $248.9 million, has also lost about 40.4% year-to-date.

Despite the losses, these spot ETFs continue to attract modest inflows, indicating that some investors remain optimistic or are averaging down in anticipation of a market rebound.