The ongoing government shutdown in the United States has had an immediate negative impact on market sentiment and price movement for XRP. · SEC staffing shortages: The U.S. Senate has failed to pass a temporary funding bill, leading to the government shutdown entering its 9th day. This means the SEC is understaffed and unable to allocate sufficient resources to review the S-1 filings for 7 pending XRP Spot ETF approvals.

Concerns over delays trigger sell-off: Although the final decision date for the XRP Spot ETF was originally set between October 18 and November 14, the longer the shutdown lasts, the greater the delay in the ETF's launch. This uncertainty has led to a collective sell-off in the market. · Whale panic selling: In the past 30 days, large XRP holders (with wallet sizes between 1 million and 10 million XRP) have sold off up to 440 million tokens, worth approximately $1.25 billion. This selling pressure briefly pushed the XRP price below the support level of $2.8. · Long-term shutdown risk: According to predictions from the betting platform Kalshi, the probability of the U.S. government shutdown lasting more than 20 days is as high as 62%, indicating a very high risk that ETF approval could be delayed beyond the first deadline of October 18.