A convergence of three significant events for the crypto market occurred: the reopening of the U.S. government after a 43-day shutdown, the debut of the first XRP spot ETF, and the announcement of a Visa pilot for payments in USDC. These events accelerated movements in the crypto ecosystem with impact on investors, payment platforms, and independent workers.
The U.S. government shutdown, which lasted from October 1 to November 13, affected nearly one million employees and generated estimated losses of between $7 billion and $14 billion in GDP. During this period of reduced staffing at agencies such as the SEC and disruption in the release of economic data, Bitcoin reached record highs, surpassing $106,000 and reaching up to $120,000.
The first XRP spot ETF, XRPC from Canary Capital, debuted on the Nasdaq Global Market the same day as the government reopening, recording $26 million in volume during its first 30 minutes of trading. This pushed the price of XRP up 3.28% to $2.48. Several institutional managers such as Grayscale, 21Shares, Franklin Templeton, Bitwise, ProShares, and Volatility Shares are competing to offer exposure to XRP, which suggests strong institutional demand.
Simultaneously, Visa announced at Web Summit a pilot payments program that allows companies to pay creators, freelancers, and temporary workers in USDC via Visa Direct. The initiative also explores settlements in USDC and EURC for client members, with partners such as Nium. Additionally, local experiments are mentioned, such as a program in New York that distributes $12,000 in USDC to low-income residents through custody platforms.
The importance of these 3 changes in the crypto market
The implications of these converging events include greater institutional adoption (evidenced by the ETF’s initial volume), improvements in payment operations (reducing settlement latencies), a reduction in regulatory risk following the government reopening, and an increase in market confidence thanks to the ETF’s institutional validation and Visa’s real-world usage tests.
The next milestones to watch will be the evolution of XRPC’s volume and flows after its launch and the extension of Visa’s pilot to more clients. Both indicators will serve to measure whether this institutional validation and operational testing translate into sustained adoption of crypto assets and stablecoins.
