Loved by Retail, Shunned by Institutions – What’s Driving the Sentiment Split?

Ripple’s native XRP token is once again at the center of a polarizing debate. While retail holders remain fiercely loyal, many institutional voices and crypto veterans continue to dismiss it as overly centralized.

The divide has sharpened with XRP’s market value hovering around $180 billion, making it the third-largest digital asset.

Community Debate Reignites Old Fault Lines

On X, attorney John E. Deaton bluntly summed up the divide:

“XRP is the single most hated Crypto by institutional and professional traders/holders. XRP is the most loved Crypto by retail investors/holders.”

He was responding to ETF analyst Nate Geraci, who had earlier noted that XRP’s market capitalization was almost at $180 billion, surpassing global investment giant BlackRock, while still being “the most hated or disparaged crypto asset.”

Debate around the subject has been heated, with critics pointing to structural concerns. Some X users highlighted XRP’s pre-mined supply and Ripple’s perceived influence over network governance.

“A small approved list runs the network… big changes need 80 percent approval,” one post read, suggesting power is concentrated in too few hands. Others also argued that Ripple’s marketing partnerships were clouding the true extent of real-world adoption.

Meanwhile, defenders countered that much of the hostility is rooted in tribalism. User Kitty Leroux argued that early campaigns from Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) advocates, amplified by regulatory hostility, had hardened negative perceptions of XRP. Another user, Scotty Inkley, suggested that much of the sentiment was driven by rivalry:

“BTC and ETH are slow and cumbersome in comparison. XRP might actually shine for five/ten years before it gets beaten by an emerging tech.”

This tension is playing out against a backdrop of institutional breakthroughs for XRP. As reported by CryptoPotato, the asset became the fastest crypto to reach $1 billion in open interest on CME futures, joining BTC, ETH, and SOL in the exchange’s “$1B club.” This milestone is often seen as a signal of deeper liquidity and growing professional participation.

At the same time, holders of the token are seeing new ways to put it to work. Recently, yield platform MoreMarkets partnered with Flare to launch the “XRP Earn Account,” allowing investors to generate weekly yield payouts without managing complex DeFi strategies on their own.

Price Pressures

Meanwhile, CoinGecko data shows XRP trading at $3.02 at the time of writing, up 4.2% on the week and outperforming the broader market, which slipped 0.5% over the same period.

However, it has retreated 7% in the last two weeks and almost 8% over the past month, pushing it 17% below its mid-July all-time high of $3.65. Additionally, analysts are warning that exchange inflows from whales could pressure prices further, and they have pegged $2.95 as a make-or-break level.

According to them, a decisive bounce could open the path toward $4.20 to $4.50, while failure may drag the Ripple token toward $2.80 or even $2.40.