BlackRock and Fidelity Will Join the XRP ETF Race: Nate Geraci

The race for an XRP exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the U.S. is gaining momentum, with major financial firms like BlackRock and Fidelity expected to join.

Nate Geraci, president of The ETF Store, recently posted on X that XRP ETF approval is “simply a matter of time.”

BlackRock and Fidelity Will Join the XRP ETF, Source: X

He stated that XRP is the third-largest cryptocurrency without a stablecoin by market capitalization, and it is something appealing to large asset managers. He anticipates seeing companies like BlackRock, Fidelity, Bitwise, Canary Capital, WisdomTree, and Grayscale in the space.

However, BlackRock has indicated that it is presently working on Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs because of their robust market performance and popularity. BlackRock’s head of ETFs, Jay Jacobs, reiterated that altcoin ETFs such as XRP and Solana are not on the agenda at present. Nevertheless, analysts opine that BlackRock and Fidelity will not overlook XRP for too long.

This positivity is supported by the recent resolution of Ripple Labs’ long-running lawsuit with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Ripple agreed to pay a cut fine of $50 million from the originally sanctioned $125 million, in effect ending the historic case.

The settlement is seen as a great win for Ripple and will hopefully open the doors for further institutional adoption of XRP.

In February, Brazil approved the world’s first spot XRP ETF , with the CVM granting Hashdex’s Nasdaq XRP Index Fund regulatory approval. 

Consequently, the possibility of an XRP ETF approval has increased substantially. Figures provided by Polymarket indicate an 87% chance of approval in 2025, with a 38% chance of it occurring before July 31, 2025.

Franklin Templeton, with assets under management of $1.5 billion, is already a part of the XRP ETF race. Since XRP has a market capitalization of more than $144 billion, there are some experts who feel it is a question of time before the biggest issuers of ETFs enter this space.