XRP and Solana dethrone Bitcoin and Ethereum as institutional favorites in 2025
In 2025, institutional capital shifted, elevating XRP and Solana to 'institutional alt majors' alongside Ethereum, while Bitcoin inflows slowed.Summary
The institutional crypto playbook fundamentally changed in 2025, according to CoinShares data, moving beyond Bitcoin-only dominance. While Bitcoin remained the largest asset, its inflows declined by 35% year-over-year. Ethereum cemented its status as a core holding, seeing a 138% surge in inflows, reaching $12.69 billion. The most dramatic shift involved XRP and Solana, which experienced growth rates of approximately 500% and 1,000% respectively, effectively doubling their asset bases through massive new institutional capital. This concentration of flows into four assets—Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, and Solana—is creating a 'winner-take-most' dynamic, as regulatory moats favor established products, causing inflows into smaller altcoins to collapse by 30%. The new standard portfolio model for 2026 is expected to be a weighted basket anchored by Bitcoin, with Ethereum as the smart contract foundation, and XRP/Solana serving as high-growth satellites, though this concentration risks making the ecosystem top-heavy and sensitive to the performance of these few chains.
(Source：CryptoSlate)