There is currently an obvious bottleneck in the discussion of when XRP will finally get its spot ETF, and it has nothing to do with charts or liquidity.
According to the SEC's schedule, six different applications – Grayscale, 21Shares, Bitwise, CanaryCapital, CoinShares, and WisdomTree – are stacked from October 18th to October 24th, a one-week period that could determine whether XRP enters the same league as Bitcoin and Ethereum or remains on the sidelines.
Ironically, the technical hurdles have already been cleared. Back on September 17, the SEC pushed through new listing standards for commodity-backed trust stocks, the very framework that would make it easier to approve ETFs.
Chairman Paul Atkins has made no secret of his desire for the United States to remain competitive in the digital asset space. Ripple also had a seat at Brad Garlinghouse's dinner table with the new US government earlier this year. On paper, conditions look almost perfect.
the last hurdle
However, due to the government shutdown, the SEC was frozen to bare minimum staffing levels. Nate Geraci summed it up in a recent post: Once the shutdown ends, the ETF floodgates will open. Until then, XRP will be held back by politics, not the market.
Once the government shutdown ends, the floodgates for spot crypto ETFs will open…
The mounting fiscal debt and the usual political theater that stands in its way is ironic.
This is exactly what cryptocurrencies are targeting.
— Nate Geraco (@NateGeraco) 13, 2025
If one of these six applications gets the green light, it would become the first-ever U.S. spot XRP ETF, instantly opening the door to billions of dollars in institutional inflows.
Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs have already proven how quickly their funds can push prices to new records. For XRP, the path is similar, but nothing moves until Washington acts.
