XRP News: Former BlackRock MD Says Ripple Will Eventually Succeed Despite Divided Opinions

A former BlackRock Managing Director is cutting through the polarized noise around XRP with a simple argument, saying institutional adoption doesn’t need everyone on board to succeed.

Speaking on the UK Crypto Podcast, the current Managing Director and UK Lead at 21Shares, who previously served as Managing Director at BlackRock, addressed the divided views around Ripple’s cross-border payments infrastructure. He said opinions on the token tend to split into extremes, either total conviction it will dominate institutional payments, or outright dismissal, with little middle ground.

“When you see some of the big credit card companies or big firms adopting, moving into the space, saying that they’re going to use Ripple as well, I think it’s inevitable,” he said. “It will actually grow.” He added that Ripple’s success doesn’t hinge on winning over the entire market, only on continued adoption from major institutions already moving in that direction.

Tokenization Is Expanding Beyond Money Market Funds

The conversation broadened into tokenization more generally, where he pointed to money market tokens as the clearest early success story, largely because they eliminate the settlement delays typical of traditional exchanges and let holders generate yield immediately. He expects that momentum to extend well beyond money markets. “Pretty much anything that is a traditional security, you’ll be able to tokenize as well,” he said.

What US 13F Filings Reveal About Institutional Demand

He pointed to US 13F filings, public disclosures the SEC requires for institutional security holdings, as a revealing window into how far institutional crypto adoption has already progressed stateside. 

Tracking these filings at 21Shares, he said the buyer base for Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs now includes pension schemes, Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds, private banks, family offices, and wealth managers, well beyond retail investors alone.