The XRP community might finally have a reason to celebrate as the United States Senate has just voted 60-40 to advance a bill that would reopen the federal government, a major step toward ending the longest shutdown in American history. This vote could be the moment everything changes for the crypto market, and especially for holders.
Now that lawmakers are working to restore government operations, the next outlook is what could come next once the SEC returns to full capacity, and it opens up the question of whether Spot XRP ETFs will soon get approved.
Senate Vote Brings Hope for XRP ETF Decisions
Monday’s 60-40 Senate vote brought a sigh of relief to markets and set the stage for a final House vote as early as Wednesday. The bipartisan measure, if approved, will unlock government funding and allow regulators, including the SEC, to resume their normal operations after more than a month of near standstill.
During the shutdown, SEC staff responsible for reviewing ETF filings were furloughed, effectively freezing dozens of applications from major asset managers. This included those for Dogecoin, Cardano, Solana, and most notably, XRP ETFs, which had already crossed their decision deadlines in October.
It is important to note that the agency had issued new procedural guidelines for ETF filings shortly before the shutdown to make approvals much easier and faster, but the freeze effectively stalled all progress.
Although there is still work to be done for the shutdown to end, the focus is now on how quickly the SEC will resume its backlog once operations restart. There is enough optimism that the XRP ETF filings, which have witnessed significant public attention, could be among the first to move forward once reviews begin again.
Spot ETFs Waiting For the Green Light
XRP is currently the third biggest cryptocurrency in terms of market cap (minus stablecoin USDT), so it is only natural that it becomes the next cryptocurrency with tradable Spot ETFs in the US market.
Several major firms have filed for spot XRP ETFs over the past few months, hoping to bring the same level of institutional exposure to the altcoin that Bitcoin and Ethereum are enjoying. Among those in line are Grayscale, Bitwise, 21Shares, and CoinShares. These issuers had expected SEC responses in October, but the government shutdown disrupted the timeline.
There are already different XRP futures and leveraged ETFs available, but they do not cause the same sort of buying pressure as Spot XRP ETFs. Unlike futures-based ETFs, Spot ETFs actually hold the underlying asset, in this case, XRP. That means investors could gain direct exposure through traditional brokerage accounts without holding the tokens themselves.
The market impact could be massive once these Spot ETFs are approved. Institutional demand flows in once a regulated product becomes available, just as it did with Spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs. Therefore, Spot XRP ETFs will mean a rise in price and liquidity for the cryptocurrency.
