Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy said he is still adding to XRP and bitcoin during a sharp crypto sell-off, keeping the same accumulation approach even as prices moved lower after his purchases. In a post on X, he wrote: “Crypto is crashing but I’m still buying.” The message pointed to conviction during weakness, not a call on an immediate rebound.
In a related video, Portnoy said he bought about $1 million worth of XRP at roughly $1.79 through the Kraken app. That trade added to the $1 million XRP position he had already built in November last year. He also disclosed a purchase of about $500,000 in bitcoin at around $82,000 during the same downturn.
He added after the drop, not before it
Portnoy also described what happened right after the XRP buy. He said the token had already slipped from $1.79 to about $1.74 by the time he woke up, a move he said he did not love, but one that did not change his plan. His stance was blunt: “That thing keeps falling. I’ll keep buying.” The focus was on buying into heavy selling pressure rather than trying to identify an exact bottom.
At the time referenced in the source material, XRP was trading near $1.43, down 10% on the day and 23% over the past week. The article described the broader crypto market as being in a period of extreme fear. Against that backdrop, Portnoy’s decision to add exposure stood out because he was buying after momentum had already turned sharply negative.
Spot XRP ETFs stabilize while inflows return to select products
Price weakness did not fully match the picture in U.S. spot XRP ETFs. According to the source, total net asset value across those funds had stabilized at $1.11 billion after recovering from a record $93 million outflow in late January. The piece also said recent daily inflows into the Bitwise XRP ETF and Franklin’s XRPZ pointed to continuing institutional interest.
The source framed that trend as a sign that some institutions are separating XRP from bitcoin’s volatility and viewing it through the lens of cross-border payment utility. It did not provide a deeper breakdown of holdings or individual portfolio allocations.
Ripple expands licensing and tokenization activity
The article also highlighted several Ripple developments taking place during the market decline. Ripple has obtained a full Electronic Money Institution license in Luxembourg, allowing it to offer payment services and issue electronic money across the European Union. That gives the company a broader regulated footprint in Europe.
Separately, Ripple disclosed the tokenization of $280 million in certified diamonds from the UAE on the XRP Ledger. Ripple Prime also added support for the Hyperliquid decentralized derivatives protocol, widening on-chain liquidity options available to institutional clients. Taken together, those updates show Ripple continuing to push XRP-linked infrastructure into payments, tokenized assets, and capital markets workflows.