BlackRock Director to speak at Ripple event fueling XRP ETF speculation
Ripple’s flagship SWELL 2025 conference, scheduled for October 22–23 in London, is shaping up to be one of the most closely watched events in institutional crypto. Among the most notable additions to the speaker lineup is Maxwell Stein, Director of Digital Assets at BlackRock, whose participation has sparked renewed speculation about the asset manager’s potential plans for XRP. Stein’s presence has been interpreted by many in the XRP community as more than symbolic. Crypto influencer Crypto Eri was quick to urge followers to “connect the dots,” highlighting the timing of BlackRock’s involvement alongside Ripple’s pursuit of U.S. Trust Bank status, a milestone that could integrate XRP into Federal Reserve infrastructure for institutional payments. While no XRP exchange-traded fund (ETF) has been announced, BlackRock’s previous success with Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs makes the idea of an XRP ETF plausible. Some industry observers believe that if Ripple secures full lega...