XRP Rockets 20% as Nasdaq Greenlights First Spot ETF – Wall Street Finally Wakes Up

Nasdaq just flipped the switch on crypto’s most contentious asset. The XRP spot ETF approval—pending since 2023—sends institutional demand into overdrive.

The Backstory:

Ripple’s legal wins chipped away at SEC resistance, but Wall Street stayed sidelined. Now Nasdaq’s stamp of approval forces hedge funds to play catch-up.

Why It Matters:

• First-mover advantage: Grayscale’s filing eyes XRP after Bitcoin/Dominance
• Liquidity surge: Market makers can finally hedge without OTC desk headaches
• Regulatory domino effect: Other exchanges now pressured to list competing products

The ‘experts’ who called XRP dead now scramble to update their PowerPoint decks. Meanwhile, retail traders who held through the SEC’s onslaught finally get their payoff—assuming they didn’t panic-sell at $0.30.

XRP has experienced one of its most dynamic sessions of the week following Nasdaq’s certification of the first spot XRP ETF, propelling the price to $2.48 with a notable increase in trading volume. This certification clarified that the ETF WOULD commence trading as U.S. markets open on Thursday, accelerating investor interest. Market participants began to price in an institutional trend reminiscent of past cycles observed in Bitcoin$101,765 and Ethereum$3,417 ETFs, boosting expectations as network growth indicators also showed a strong upward momentum.

Impact of ETF Approval on the Market

Nasdaq-approved spot fund code XRPC has swiftly passed through the SEC‘s 8(a) process and will be available on shelves by Thursday’s opening. The product, leveraging the custodial infrastructure of Gemini Trust and BitGo Trust, reinforces the security standard aimed at institutional investors while employing the CoinDesk XRP CCIX Index for data. This approval process has also sparked widespread interest, marking the initiation of the first spot crypto product in the U.S. outside Bitcoin and Ethereum. In the two days preceding the opening, over 21,000 new XRP wallets were created, indicating the network activity has reached its strongest period in eight months.

In the short term, the impact of institutional entries became more evident, with significant wallet movements indicating that profit-taking remains active. Notably, addresses holding 1–10 million XRP have seen approximately 90 million units offloaded. The resulting short-term supply increase due to distribution kept the price reaction controlled, yet overall investor sentiment highlighted constructive expectations towards the ETF opening. The recent activities bear similarities to the accumulation-correction balance observed during the rollout of spot bitcoin ETFs in the past.

Technical Outlook and Short-term Levels

XRP’s chart maintains the validity of a channel shaped by intraday rising bases. The concentration of buyers at the $2.40 support level strengthens the positioning around the ETF support cluster. The $2.52 range was the rejected level of the day, while the price’s balance within the $2.46–$2.49 range keeps the continuity of the trend possible. A sudden 163 million units growth in volume confirmed measurable institutional interest driven by the ETF.

Momentum indicators remain positioned to confirm upward potential. The RSI on the four-hour chart lags behind the overbought boundary, maintaining space for price movements to grow. The MACD slope continues its upward progression, indicating intensified trend strength. Extensions at $2.59 and $2.70 will become critical areas to monitor should the $2.52 level break with volume support. Conversely, dropping below $2.38 would weaken the structure, becoming a threshold to monitor in risk planning.