Acting SEC Chair Mark Uyeda, Crypto Task Force Head Hester Peirce, and Commissioner Caroline Crenshaw must vote on an appeal withdrawal. The upcoming Closed Meeting provides an opportunity for a vote. Although unlikely, XRP could face selling pressure if the SEC makes no formal announcement on March 27.
XRP-Spot ETFs: BlackRock Missing from the Pack
An official court filing confirming the withdrawal would open the path for XRP-spot ETF approvals. Currently, issuers such as 21Shares, Bitwise Invest, Canary Funds, Grayscale, and WisdomTree have filed applications for XRP-spot ETFs.
While an XRP-spot ETF market could fuel institutional demand for XRP, BlackRock (BLK) remains notably absent. In the US BTC-spot ETF market, BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) has reported total net inflows of $39,669 million since launch, offsetting $22,526 million in outflows from Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust (GBTC).
Importantly, without IBIT’s inflows, the US BTC-spot ETF market would have posted net outflows of $3.6 billion—potentially weighing on Bitcoin demand. This underscores the influence BlackRock could have on an emerging XRP-spot ETF market.
Institutional demand for XRP-spot ETFs will likely be crucial as it has for BTC, which rallied in early 2024 on strong ETF inflows.
A BlackRock filing for an XRP-spot ETF could change the narrative. It is plausible that BlackRock will file once the SEC formally dismisses its appeal.
