Grayscale allocates 26% of new advisor portfolio to XRP, excludes Bitcoin entirely

Grayscale’s new model portfolio for financial advisors allocates more than a quarter of assets to XRP while excluding Bitcoin entirely, signaling a significant shift in how the wealth management giant is packaging crypto exposure for institutional clients. The move tests whether advisors will treat the strategy as genuine diversification into emerging assets or as a concentrated bet on Ethereum and XRP masked by a multi-asset wrapper.

• XRP comprises 26.11% of Grayscale’s Digital Assets Next Gen portfolio, the second-largest holding after Ether at 42.34%
• The Grayscale XRP Trust ETF trades 38.51% below its launch price despite recent token strength near $1.42
• Six of the model’s seven underlying funds are underwater, yet the portfolio shows a 30.69% net gain in five weeks of trading since July 27

• 26.11% XRP allocation in Digital Assets Next Gen model portfolio
• 38.51% Grayscale XRP Trust ETF decline from launch price
• July 27 Launch date for the new Grayscale model portfolio strategy

Grayscale launched four model portfolios on September 14 to give financial advisors a turnkey crypto allocation strategy, with the Digital Assets Next Gen portfolio representing the firm’s most aggressive bet on emerging tokens. According to BeInCrypto’s reporting, the Next Gen model excludes Bitcoin entirely and concentrates roughly 89% of its assets across three holdings: Ether at 42.34%, XRP at 26.11%, and Solana at 21.09%. The portfolio rebalances every three months and caps any single asset at 40%, though Ether has already drifted past that ceiling since the model began trading on July 27. Grayscale charges no separate fee for the models themselves, with underlying funds averaging 0.23% in annual costs.

XRP’s Heavy Weighting Masks Significant Losses in Grayscale’s Trust Structure

The prominence of XRP in Grayscale’s new model portfolio contrasts sharply with poor performance in the firm’s dedicated XRP Trust ETF. The trust trades 38.51% below its launch price, and BeInCrypto reported in August that it sold $180 million in tokens during the first half of the year at a realized loss.

Six of the seven funds underpinning the model portfolio trade below their starting prices, creating a structural disconnect between the model’s reported gains and the actual performance of its component assets.

XRP itself traded near $1.42 on the announcement date, up roughly 5% for the day, but that intraday strength has not reversed the trust’s longer-term decline.

Grayscale’s decision to anchor Next Gen around Ether and XRP rather than the traditional Bitcoin-Ethereum-Solana trio used in other model portfolios signals confidence in a different allocation thesis.

However, the fund-level losses raise questions about whether the portfolio’s reported 30.69% net gain since July 27 reflects genuine momentum or is built largely on a single strong August with limited underlying data to support a sustained reversal.

Institutional Adoption Depends on Advisor Interpretation of “Emerging Assets”

Laurie Katz, Grayscale’s Global Head of Distribution, framed the model launch as a convenience play for advisors seeking to add crypto exposure without maintaining individual asset allocations. The pitch centers on simplicity: advisors can replicate Grayscale’s chosen weights across client accounts using the firm’s ETF suite.

Whether advisors treat Digital Assets Next Gen as a genuine emerging-asset strategy or as a concentrated Ethereum-XRP bet repackaged for institutional consumption will determine how much capital flows into the model.

The model’s zero separate fee structure removes one barrier to adoption, but the fund-level underperformance raises due diligence questions that advisors will likely scrutinize.

Grayscale’s broader lineup includes Digital Assets Core Plus, focused on established assets including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and Chainlink’s broader institutional infrastructure, signaling that the firm is testing multiple portfolio philosophies simultaneously. The Next Gen strategy’s exclusion of Bitcoin is notable given Grayscale’s historical strength in Bitcoin products and suggests the firm believes advisors are ready to allocate meaningfully beyond the largest asset class. Grayscale caps rebalancing at quarterly intervals, meaning the portfolio will remain overweight Ether relative to its 40% ceiling until the next adjustment window, potentially driving performance divergence between the model and its advertised weights.

The Next Gen model’s true test will emerge in Q4 when Grayscale executes its first quarterly rebalance and advisors decide whether to commit material client assets to the strategy. The combination of XRP’s inclusion, Bitcoin’s absence, and the XRP Trust’s underwater valuation creates a complex narrative for advisor presentations, success depends on whether institutional clients view this as an informed diversification play or a redemption opportunity for assets Grayscale accumulated at higher prices.