The ongoing discussion about when XRP will secure its spot ETF has reached a clear bottleneck, unrelated to market charts or liquidity issues.
Based on the SEC’s timeline, there are six applications in the queue from Grayscale, 21Shares, Bitwise, CanaryCapital, CoinShares, and WisdomTree. These are scheduled between October 18 and October 24. This crucial week could determine whether XRP joins the ranks of Bitcoin and Ethereum or remains on hold.
Interestingly enough, technical barriers have already been overcome. On September 17th, the SEC implemented new listing standards for commodity-backed trust shares—precisely the framework needed to facilitate ETF approvals.
Paul Atkins has openly expressed his desire for the U.S. to maintain its edge in digital assets. Ripple was even included in these discussions earlier this year when Brad Garlinghouse met with representatives of the new U.S. administration over dinner. On paper at least, everything seems ideally set up.
A Final Obstacle
However, due to a government shutdown that has reduced SEC operations to minimal levels of staffing capacity, Nate Geraci pointed out that once this shutdown concludes, the doors for ETFs will swing wide open. Until then, XRP finds itself stalled by political circumstances rather than market forces.
“Once government shutdown ends, spot crypto ETF floodgates open…
Ironic that growing fiscal debt & usual political theater holding these up.
This is exactly what crypto aims to address.”
— @NateGeraci (October 13, 2025)
If any one of those six submissions receives approval, a historic first U.S. spot XRP ETF would be established immediately opening avenues for billions in institutional investments.
The rapid rise seen with Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs demonstrates how quickly such funds can drive prices upward into record territory.
XRP stands poised similarly—but nothing progresses until Washington acts upon it.