When Washington Shuts Down, Crypto Keeps Building: ETF Approvals Set to Resume
The longest United States authorities shutdown on report has rippled via monetary markets—and crypto is not any exception. Liquidity is thinning, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) approvals are frozen, and merchants are bracing for what comes subsequent.
Weeks into the shutdown, volatility spiked, culminating within the Oct. 10 liquidation event that erased $19 billion in leveraged crypto bets. While merchants had been confronted with record-breaking losses, business innovation additionally got here to a halt. For crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs), a U.S. federal authorities shutdown created a specific set of operational and market dangers.
According to Bloomberg Intelligence, over 130 crypto ETFs are at present ready for approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). A authorities shutdown forces the SEC and different regulators to reduce operations, slowing evaluate timelines for brand spanking new ETF filings and structural modifications. This has resulted in a brief pause for the approval of crypto ETFs.
ETFs Will Pass As Government Shutdown Ends
The excellent news is that the U.S. Senate has just passed a funding package to reopen the federal government. The bundle was authorised on November 12 and is at present awaiting a compromise deal from the U.S. House of Representatives to vote on and approve.
James Seyffart, ETF analysis analyst for Bloomberg Intelligence, instructed Cryptonews that after the federal government shutdown ends, it is going to allow the SEC to re-engage on digital assets ETFs. “The SEC can speed up filings, which suggests we might see many of those ETFs launch reasonably shortly,” he mentioned.
Specifically talking, Seyffart believes that spot XRP exchange-traded merchandise (ETPs) shall be authorised this month. “This would be the case whether or not or not the federal government reopens, in my view—although timing could also be impacted.”
As of mid-November 2025, at the very least 5 spot XRP ETFs have been listed on the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) platform, with filings from Bitwise, Canary Capital, Franklin Templeton, 21Shares, and CoinShares.
While these filings have been delayed due to the shutdown, Canary Funds’ XRP Trust will likely become the first spot XRP ETF to list in the U.S. This follows the agency’s submitting of Form 8-A with the SEC on November 11. According to the SEC’s Form 8-A filing, the ETF is about to checklist on Nasdaq underneath the identify Canary XRP ETF (XRPC).
Markus Levin, co-founder of XYO, an SEC-qualified crypto firm underneath Regulation A, instructed Cryptonews that given Canary Funds’ submitting went in final evening as of writing, the life like window is both November 12 or 13 for the primary XRP ETF to start buying and selling on Nasdaq.
“All the substantive approvals are executed; that is the executive wrap-up earlier than the bell rings,” Levin mentioned. “Once the SEC is totally again from the shutdown pause, Canary can flip the change and open buying and selling. If the sample holds, XRP will be part of the checklist of reside US spot crypto ETFs earlier than the week’s finish, marking the following part of regulated altcoin publicity for establishments.”
Momentum Decreases, But Crypto Market Holds Strong
In addition to a spot XRP ETF approval, business specialists consider that total, the U.S. authorities shutdown has been extra of a momentum killer, reasonably than a market breaker.
“It’s not that fundamentals abruptly modified; it’s that the stream of capital and regulatory readability each hit pause. For establishments, that’s a transparent sign to sit tight,” Levin acknowledged.
Levin added that for tokens like Solana (SOL), which rely extra on narrative and developer exercise, this impact has been psychological. Yet regardless of a 4% SOL value drop over 24 hours and greater than 20% in 11 days, Solana ETFs have continued to attract institutional inflows. This demonstrates that whereas retail merchants is probably not paying consideration to SOL, establishments are quietly shopping for the dip.
In regards to Bitcoin (BTC), Willem Schroe, founder and CEO of Botanix Labs, instructed Cryptonews that the U.S. authorities shutdown has had a significant affect on BTC.
He defined that Bitcoin’s community and fundamentals stay fully unaffected by authorities exercise. Yet the shutdown continues to create uncertainty in conventional markets that inevitably spills over into the broader funding setting.
“When traders are not sure in regards to the federal authorities’s fiscal stability or financial outlook, they typically reprice threat and shift allocations, typically decreasing publicity to equities and conventional devices, and in different instances, in search of belongings that function independently from political or financial coverage. Bitcoin typically advantages in that latter class,” Schroe mentioned.
Challenges to Consider As the End of the Shutdown Approaches
As the U.S. government shutdown slowly comes to an end, Seyffart believes that there’ll be many different crypto ETP launches between now and the top of the 12 months. He defined this would be the case for many digital belongings that meet the SEC’s Generic Listing Standards (GLS), which incorporates at the very least 12 belongings aside from Bitcoin or Ethereum.
“The belongings we consider at present meet these GLS requirements are: Solana, Litecoin, XRP, Bitcoin Cash, Dogecoin, Polkadot, Shiba Inu, Avalanche, Chainlink, Stellar, Hedera, and Cardano,” Seyffart talked about.
While noteworthy, plenty of challenges might gradual the approval of those ETPs. Eli Cohen, chief authorized officer at Centrifuge, instructed Cryptonews that even when the shutdown ends, there’s nonetheless a Continuing Resolution to negotiate and move within the Senate after which the House of Representatives.
“I anticipate that the 20-day automated approval mechanism will nonetheless be the quickest monitor, that means a spot XRP ETF launch might occur across the finish of November. The 4 spot ETFs that launched on NYSE in October, regardless of the shutdown, are an excellent indication that that is the best way ahead,” Cohen mentioned.
He added that an extra problem to think about is that among the ETPs in search of approval could also be linked to underlying belongings with inadequate liquidity.
Despite these setbacks, the crypto ecosystem stays hopeful.
“If the shutdown’s finish coincides with new ETF approvals or renewed market optimism, it might mark the beginning of one other cycle the place institutional participation grows,” Schroe mentioned.
The submit When Washington Shuts Down, Crypto Keeps Building: ETF Approvals Set to Resume appeared first on Cryptonews.

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