Jake Claver, chairman of Digital Ascension Group and crypto commentator @beyond_broke, is betting big on institutional interest in the XRP Ledger — and he thinks it could eventually lead to a BlackRock-sponsored XRP ETF.
In a recent interview, Claver argued that growing adoption of XRPL by major financial firms is creating the conditions for more institutional products tied to XRP. He suggested that as usage of the ledger increases — particularly for payments and settlement use cases — demand for XRP could rise and make an ETF filing by a heavyweight like BlackRock plausible. Claver added that broader settlement use may require XRP to trade “at a significantly higher price” before it’s used extensively by institutions.
Claver’s comments come as BlackRock ramps up its crypto ETF offerings. On June 16, BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Premium Income ETF (BITA) is set to begin trading on Nasdaq after SEC approval. BITA uses a covered-call strategy linked to BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) and targets annual yields of roughly 15%–25%, reflecting how asset managers are experimenting with income-focused crypto products.
Several developments on the XRPL front have helped fuel the conversation:
- Institutional interest: XRPL Commons director Odelia Torteman has said major firms — including BlackRock, Mastercard and Franklin Templeton — have explored the ledger for its cross-asset payment capabilities and infrastructure tailored to regulated institutions.
- Native infrastructure: Institutions are increasingly evaluating XRPL-native tools such as the decentralized exchange (DEX) and automated market maker (AMM).
- Tokenized finance partnerships: Ripple announced a tokenized lending initiative with Franklin Templeton and DBS that used the RLUSD stablecoin. Securitize has enabled conversions between shares of BlackRock’s tokenized BUIDL fund and RLUSD.
- Expanded payments rails: Ripple brought Bitso’s Mexican peso-backed stablecoin MXNB onto XRPL and integrated it into Payments on Decentralized Exchange, adding another regulated settlement asset to the network.
- AI and developer tooling: Ripple launched an AI Starter Kit for building agent-based payment apps on XRPL and added support for the X402 protocol, enabling AI agents to transact using XRP and RLUSD.
Taken together, these moves have amplified market speculation that XRPL could see deeper institutional use — and that might eventually translate into new investment products tied to XRP. Claver’s full interview will be released next week on the Deep Dive podcast, where he expands on why he thinks a BlackRock XRP ETF is within the realm of possibility.
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