Emeren Group Ltd, through its subsidiaries, develops, builds, operates, and sells solar power projects. It owns and operates 3 gigawatt pipeline of projects and independent power producer assets. The company also develops community solar gardens; and sells project rights. In addition, it engages in engineering design; procurement of solar modules; balance-of-system components and other components; and construction contracting and management services. Further, the company generates and sells electricity. It operates in China, United States, UK, Spain, France, Poland, Italy, Hungary, and Internationally. The company was formerly known as ReneSola Ltd and changed its name to Emeren Group Ltd in January 2023. Emeren Group Ltd was founded in 2005 and is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut.

Emeren Group Ltd

Key Points
The SEC has moved decision deadlines for several spot XRP ETF filings from mid-August to October.
These are deadline extensions, not approvals or denials.
Much of the ETF-related upside is already priced into XRP, so an approval-day pop is unlikely to be dramatic.
It was a big deal when the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) finally approved the first spot Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in January 2024. Crypto investors also saw a sea change when the SEC gave the nod to Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) ETFs six months later.
These days, several fund manager firms are seeking approval for spot-priced XRP (CRYPTO: XRP) funds -- and the SEC is dragging its feet again. This week, regulators took one look at the waiting XRP ETF filings that were due for a decision and moved their deadlines to October instead.
Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Continue »
A quick history of spot-ETF decisions in the crypto space
This calendar dance is nothing new. The SEC saw ETF decision deadlines looming for the Bitcoin and Ethereum funds many times over more than a decade of fund manager filings. Spot Bitcoin ETFs were launched in Canada three years before the American go-ahead. Fund manager Grayscale started its Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (NYSEMKT: GBTC) as a mutual fund in 2013 and almost immediately started pushing the SEC to allow that fund's conversion into a proper ETF.
And yes, XRP-related filings have been piling up. For example, Grayscale launched an XRP Trust mutual fund in September 2024 and wants to convert this instrument into an ETF.
The SEC dug into a familiar bag of tricks to push back all the XRP ETF decisions again. Other applicants include Cathie Wood's Ark Invest, CoinShares, and Bitwise. Furthermore, the sweeping October delays apply to a few Solana (CRYPTO: SOL) ETF projects, a proposed spot-price Litecoin (CRYPTO: LTC) fund, and a Grayscale Dogecoin (CRYPTO: DOGE) ETF idea -- and more.
I'd rather have bricks than straw in the regulatory crypto framework
The Trump administration calls itself crypto-friendly, and the current regulators have indeed taken several blockchain-friendly steps in 2025. They won't just rubber-stamp every incoming request for cryptocurrency-based financial instruments, though. Careful review of each filing is still necessary, and I think the crypto sector will benefit from this policy in the long run.
I'd much rather see a late but robust crypto-trading framework than a brittle rush job. It's like building a house out of bricks instead of straw or sticks. Even a mild crisis or challenge could blow those unstable houses down, and then cryptocurrency investors are back to square one -- no enforceable trading rules to speak of.
October is the new decision day (in theory)
The SEC has circled a few different dates in October for these postponed ETF reviews. Only time will tell whether the agency follows through on its deadline this time or kicks the final decision a few weeks further away.
In the meantime, XRP prices rise and fall as the spot-priced ETFs get good or bad news. Keep in mind that the Bitcoin and Ethereum ETF processes lifted the related cryptocurrency prices well ahead of the actual SEC approvals, to the point where Bitcoin prices fell in January 2024 and Ethereum's price dipped in July.
In other words, the mere discussion of upcoming XRP ETFs is already baked into the cryptocurrency price. A big price jump on the long-awaited ETF approval day would surprise me.
ETFs matter, but adoption of RippleNet is more important
So I'm not paying a ton of attention to the exact XRP ETF approval schedule. I'm pretty sure the ETFs will pop up fairly soon, with unpredictable effects on XRP's coin price. And in the end, this cryptocurrency's market value will depend on how broadly banks and governments around the world adopt XRP and the integrated RippleNet service to handle international money transfers.
ETFs may be a handy XRP-trading tool, but this fund class was a more significant addition for the "digital gold" alternative you know as Bitcoin. I'm not even an XRP buyer right now, as the coin soared to uncomfortably high prices last November. That said, I'm not selling my XRP coins in 2025, either. It's a long-term investment idea going through some overly bullish turbulence recently.
Should you invest $1,000 in XRP right now?
Before you buy stock in XRP, consider this:
The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and XRP wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.
Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $654,624!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,075,117!*
Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 1,049% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 183% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.
*Stock Advisor returns as of August 18, 2025
Anders Bylund has positions in Bitcoin, Ethereum, Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (BTC), Solana, and XRP. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and XRP. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

The SEC Just Announced Delays for an XRP ETF And Spot XRP Funds

Key Points
A pro-crypto U.S. government is boosting the broader cryptocurrency market.
Developers are upgrading the Ethereum network to protect its blockchain leadership.
A combination of tailwinds bodes well for Ethereum's price.
Cryptocurrencies are a relatively new asset class, but they are here and rapidly expanding.
To date, there are more than 15 million cryptocurrencies, giving investors virtually endless choices. But given how risky and volatile crypto is as a whole, it may be wise to keep things simple. Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) has been around for a decade and is the world's second-largest cryptocurrency by market value.
Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Learn More »
Ether, the native token for the Ethereum network, has been on a tear lately; its market price has almost tripled since April, and it's beginning to approach its all-time high, set back in 2021 at the peak of a previous crypto bull market.
But things have changed since 2021, and the coin's recent rally may have some serious legs. Here are three reasons why it's one of the best cryptocurrencies you can invest $100 in right now.
1. Regulatory tailwinds
To start, look no further than the regulatory tides lifting all the cryptocurrency boats. The Trump administration has been a tremendous ally to the cryptocurrency industry by:
Peeling back regulatory scrutiny and litigation against companies in the industry.
Planning to establish a federal Bitcoin reserve and digital asset stockpile via executive order.
Helping to pass the Genius Act, which is aimed at establishing clearer regulatory frameworks for digital currencies and their real-world applications.
These moves are a step toward making cryptocurrencies a mainstream asset.
2. Institutional money flowing in
Institutional interest is gaining steam as the regulatory climate thaws. Corporations, banks, and investment funds have substantial buying power.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved the creation of spot Ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs) last summer. These ETFs hold Ether on behalf of the fund's investors, giving people a simple way to invest without having actual custody of the tokens. That means no need to fuss with wallets or seed phrases. Since then, more $12 billion has flowed into U.S. spot Ether ETFs.
Additionally, President Donald Trump recently signed an executive order that would pave the way for retirement accounts like 401(k)s to have access to alternative assets, such as cryptocurrencies. With time, this could spark further interest in Ether and other cryptocurrencies. There are more than $40 trillion in total U.S. retirement assets, and even a tiny fraction of that going into digital assets could mean a massive inflow of funds.
3. The Ethereum network is evolving
Smart contracts could eventually play a significant role in society. A smart contract is a digitally coded agreement that automatically executes an action under the specified conditions. A blockchain is a decentralized and secure ledger system, an ideal avenue for smart contracts. The Ethereum blockchain is currently the largest, by a wide margin, based on its total locked value, with more than $121 billion in smart contracts. The next closest are Tron and Solana, with just over $8 billion and $6 billion, respectively.
To stay on top, the Ethereum network has a roadmap for upgrades. Previously, the Merge transitioned Ethereum from a proof-of-work system to a proof-of-stake system. This reduced the network's energy consumption, improved its security, and set the stage for several planned upgrades.
Those upgrades include the Verge, Purge, and Splurge, which will make the network more efficient, lower transaction fees, and enhance scalability, enabling nodes to run on smaller hardware devices, such as smartphones. While there is competition from other blockchains, and Ethereum isn't the best at everything, its current size and continuous improvements bode well for its future as a pillar of the digital economy.
Ether's price outlook looks promising
It's anyone's guess how high Ether's price will go, and it's bound to be volatile. That said, Ethereum looks like a strong buy for long-term investors. The token's price still hasn't cleared its all-time high from back in 2021, something Bitcoin did at the beginning of last year. Additionally, its fully diluted market value is still just a quarter of Bitcoin's.
That doesn't mean that Ether is bound to catch Bitcoin, but Ethereum is the world's largest blockchain, and its valuation doesn't reflect that yet. Smart contracts could see increased adoption during the next several years as regulatory barriers fall, which, along with continued inflows from investors and institutions, could drive Ethereum's usage and Ether's price higher over time.
Should you invest $1,000 in Ethereum right now?
Before you buy stock in Ethereum, consider this:
The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Ethereum wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.
Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $671,466!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,115,633!*
Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 1,077% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 185% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.
*Stock Advisor returns as of August 18, 2025
Justin Pope has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

One of the Best Cryptocurrencies to Buy With $100 Right Now

Key Points
So far this year, XRP has outperformed both Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Much of its strength is tied to perceived value following a series of favorable regulatory developments for its issuer, Ripple.
While these victories are positive for Ripple, they do not necessarily spell long-term upside for XRP itself.
While 2025 has been rather turbulent for the equity markets, one asset class has defied the panic-driven selling and gloomy macroeconomic outlooks: cryptocurrency.
As of Aug. 15, the "big three" -- Bitcoin, Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH), and XRP (CRYPTO: XRP) -- have all outperformed the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite by a wide margin.
Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Continue »
Perhaps surprisingly, the smallest of the trio, XRP, leads the pack with a gain of 50% so far this year. Ethereum's return of 35% is impressive in its own right, yet momentum and headlines appear to be shifting toward new contenders like XRP.
Below, I'll outline three catalysts that could rekindle investor enthusiasm for Ethereum -- and potentially drive meaningful price appreciation as the digital asset narrative continues to unfold.
1. Don't sleep on stablecoins
XRP is best viewed as a niche-focused vehicle facilitating cross-border transactions. Ethereum, by contrast, underpins a broader ecosystem of decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols -- spanning trading, lending, smart contracts, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and, notably, stablecoins.
Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies that are pegged to the value of fiat currencies, such as the U.S. dollar. Roughly 50% of stablecoin volume passes through Ethereum's blockchain -- underscoring the network's strong appeal for these emerging financial instruments. Major enterprises including Shopify, Visa, Walmart, PayPal, and Stripe already support or are consider supporting stablecoins as a form of payment.
This growing adoption could make stablecoins a key driver in Ethereum's evolution into a pillar supporting mainstream financial services. Meanwhile, XRP, while useful, lacks the same reach in commercial applications powered by digital assets.
2. The impact of spot ETFs
One of the challenges of investing in cryptocurrency is the complexity of managing a digital wallet or using exchanges like Coinbase.
During the past year, however, the Securities and Exchange Commission has approved several spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs). These products give investors exposure to Bitcoin through trusted custodians such as BlackRock and Cathie Wood's Ark Invest, eliminating the need for the often time-consuming setup and stringent security protocols of buying and storing crypto directly.
The success of spot Bitcoin ETFs has unlocked a new wave of liquidity from both institutional and retail investors -- a dynamic that could be even more powerful for spot Ethereum ETFs.
Ethereum offers a unique combination of capital appreciation potential and income generation through staking to earn interest-like returns -- making these ETFs attractive to both growth investors and those seeking passive income.
3. The evolution of corporate and sovereign treasury strategy
In recent years, several corporations -- most notably Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) and GameStop -- have added Bitcoin to their balance sheets, supplementing traditional liquidity assets such as cash and short-term investments. Likewise, a number of sovereign nations have begun exploring the idea of strategic Bitcoin reserves as part of their global treasury strategies.
Ethereum could follow a similar trajectory. With its income-generating staking rewards and potential for price appreciation as blockchain technology becomes further integrated into the global financial system, Ethereum stands out as a strong complement to Bitcoin holdings. For corporate chief financial officers and government treasury managers, incorporating Ethereum alongside Bitcoin could improve diversification while capturing the growth potential of DeFi.
Should you buy Ethereum instead of XRP?
Ethereum's role as infrastructure supporting DeFi and its accelerating blockchain adoption make it a more compelling opportunity than its narrowly focused peer XRP. That said, Ethereum still faces stiff competition from rival blockchains such as Solana, Cardano, and Tron.
Given these dynamics, I view Ethereum as offering a stronger balance of utility and upside potential than XRP but also as having ongoing volatility likely to remain in the short to medium term.
For this reason, I think that accumulating Ethereum at varying price points over a long time -- through a disciplined dollar-cost averaging approach -- is the most prudent investment strategy.
Should you invest $1,000 in Ethereum right now?
Before you buy stock in Ethereum, consider this:
The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Ethereum wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.
Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $668,155!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,106,071!*
Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 1,070% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 184% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.
*Stock Advisor returns as of August 18, 2025
Adam Spatacco has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Bitcoin, Ethereum, Shopify, Solana, Visa, Walmart, and XRP. The Motley Fool recommends Coinbase Global. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

Should You Forget XRP and Buy This Soaring Cryptocurrency Instead?

Key Points
Created as a joke, Dogecoin doesn't have any technical advantages over other cryptocurrencies.
Much of its success has been due to Elon Musk.
It's underperforming the crypto market this year.
Five years ago, Dogecoin (CRYPTO: DOGE) was a somewhat successful meme coin, but not exactly a household name. Since then, it surged to an all-time high in 2021 and went on another impressive run after the 2024 presidential election. It's now one of the 10 largest cryptocurrencies by market cap, and it's definitely a household name -- even my grandmother knows what Dogecoin is.
The crypto market as a whole has been doing well this year, and investors are excited about the future. Let's take a closer look at Dogecoin to see if it's likely to be a winner during the next five years.
Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Learn More »
The fundamentals (or lack thereof)
Launched in 2013, Dogecoin is one of the oldest cryptocurrencies, and it's notable for being the first meme coin. Software engineers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer wanted to poke fun at the lofty ambitions of other cryptocurrencies and decided to make their own. The doge meme was popular at the time, so they used that as the name and the logo.
There's nothing remarkable about Dogecoin as a cryptocurrency. Transactions are affordable, with fees normally costing less than $0.10, but plenty of other cryptocurrencies have sub-$0.01 transaction fees. Transaction processing times are about five to 10 minutes, and Dogecoin's blockchain can manage about 30 transactions per second. Not bad for its time, but newer cryptocurrencies handle much higher workloads and settle transactions in a matter of seconds.
Dogecoin's purpose was never to be the fastest cryptocurrency or find new uses for blockchain technology. Its aim was to be amusing. There's nothing wrong with that, but it means Dogecoin doesn't have any competitive advantages that make it stand out in a crowded crypto market.
To its credit, Dogecoin has done well at building a following. One of its backers, in particular, has been instrumental in its rise up the crypto charts.
Elon Musk's impact on Dogecoin
Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk is a longtime fan of Dogecoin. He first talked about it in 2019, writing on X (formerly Twitter) that Dogecoin might be his favorite cryptocurrency.
Musk has also played a role in the meme coin's biggest moments. The price went up several times in 2020 and 2021 after tweets by Musk, and Dogecoin's all-time high coincided with Musk's appearance on Saturday Night Live. Dogecoin's bull run last year happened right after Donald Trump won the presidential election, and made Musk the head of the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), although there was no connection between the crypto and the agency.
It's not a good sign that a single person has such an outsized impact on Dogecoin's price. It reinforces that there's no fundamental basis for this crypto's previous price appreciation.
Also worth mentioning is that those previous moments of success have been brief. After reaching its all-time high of $0.74 on May 8, 2021, Dogecoin lost 70% of its value in less than two weeks. It hit a peak of $0.48 last year on Dec. 8, and while it held on longer this time, it still declined by more than 60% during the next three months.
Dogecoin's best days may be behind it
Dogecoin has underperformed lately, losing more than 28% of its value on the year (as of Aug. 16). That's even more concerning when you consider that many cryptocurrencies have been on a tear.
The chart shows how Dogecoin's performance compares to four other top cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, and Solana.
It hasn't been all bad. Dogecoin is still worth more than twice as much as it was a year ago. In addition, most economists are expecting the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates multiple times before the end of the year. Lower interest rates normally drive more investment in cryptocurrency, which could be beneficial for Dogecoin.
But there's nothing to suggest Dogecoin is a good long-term investment. It's only worth buying if you like the idea of owning a meme coin, and only with money you can afford to lose. My personal prediction is that Dogecoin loses about 50% of its value during the next five years as investors flock to more useful crypto investments.
Should you invest $1,000 in Dogecoin right now?
Before you buy stock in Dogecoin, consider this:
The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Dogecoin wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.
Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $668,155!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,106,071!*
Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 1,070% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 184% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.
*Stock Advisor returns as of August 18, 2025
Lyle Daly has positions in Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and Tesla. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Tesla, and XRP. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

Where Will Dogecoin Be in 5 Years?

Key Points
XRP's price is near its all-time high, which it made recently.
It's smarter to focus on its avenues for generating value.
XRP just made an acquisition that's likely to be fruitful for that purpose.
If you have ever hiked a mountain with a few false summits, you know the moment: You crest the ridge, take in the view, then notice a slightly higher peak ahead. That's where XRP (CRYPTO: XRP) might be today.
On July 18, XRP marked a fresh all-time high of about $3.65, and the coin has gained 440% during the past 12 months. That makes the idea of doing the same thing again less of a fantasy and more of a reasonable scenario for investors to weigh, especially if the tailwinds supporting the coin's price continue or even accelerate. Let's consider the coin's chances of beating its prior record price.
Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Learn More »
Why another new high is very plausible in the near term
The coin making new highs might grab headlines, but long-term compounding comes from utility and adoption. Ripple, the company that issues XRP, is building the payments and liquidity stack around XRP in ways that can add durable demand.
Its U.S. dollar stablecoin launched in December 2024, and crossed $642 million outstanding this summer, a helpful on-chain base layer for payments and settlement.
The company also agreed to acquire Rail, a stablecoin-focused payments platform, for roughly $200 million, signaling a faster push to enterprise payment flows that can use XRP. The purchase should close sometime in the fourth quarter.
As the XRP Ledger (XRPL) becomes more of a destination for hosting stablecoins and applications that use them, the total value stored on the chain will increase, pumping up the price of its native token, XRP. Importantly, Ripple's control of the issuance of its stablecoin effectively means that it can inject liquidity directly into the ecosystem of its chain whenever it wants. As more institutional investors onboard, Ripple will be pushing that button more frequently, as holders of large sums of capital will be attracted by the ability to do on-chain transactions in the size they prefer.
That won't be the only driver of higher prices for XRP. XRPL is intentionally built for financial institutions that need compliance-friendly money movement and asset issuance. That design shows up in the network's feature set, which is slated to continue expanding.
Today, asset issuers can require authorization before their tokens are held, freeze assets at the issuer level when legal obligations demand it, and generally enforce transfer restrictions without a duct-taped tangle of smart contracts. Those are the controls that banks and asset managers look for when they consider moving real value on-chain.
So between significantly shoring up its stablecoin platform and building out the chain's technology, XRP is very likely to continue climbing in the near term as financial operators look to find safe and compliance-friendly places for their capital.
What actually matters for investors from here
What could go wrong to prevent XRP from reaching a new high? Quite a bit.
The exchange-traded fund (ETF) approvals anticipated for later this year could slip, especially if regulatory priorities change. Competition from other chains, particularly Ethereum (and, to a lesser extent, Solana) remains fierce in key segments like stablecoins and payments tooling, where network effects and developer mindshare are meaningful advantages XRP is still working to attain.
Therefore, the smarter move here is not to waste time thinking about whether the coin can surpass its former all-time high. Rather, focus on whether the odds are improving that XRP's utility and capital base will be larger in 12 to 36 months. Based on the evidence, that second proposition looks extremely likely. That's before even taking into account other favorable dimensions, like the bullish macro environment or Ripple's receding legal issues.
If you are building a position in XRP, the price at the high water mark is less important than your conviction that the next few highs will be driven by growing usage. Accumulate it gradually, and size your positions so that delays or setbacks in the chain's roadmap don't lead you to sell on emotion.
Lastly, be sure to keep your eye on the boring metrics that actually matter, like on-ledger assets, institutional partnerships that move real payments, and tangible regulatory wins.
Should you invest $1,000 in XRP right now?
Before you buy stock in XRP, consider this:
The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and XRP wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.
Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $668,155!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,106,071!*
Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 1,070% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 184% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.
*Stock Advisor returns as of August 13, 2025
Alex Carchidi has positions in Ethereum and Solana. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Ethereum, Solana, and XRP. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

Is XRP About to Hit a New All-Time High?

Key Points
Spot crypto ETFs are one way for investors to get exposure to cryptocurrency at much lower prices.
For just $500, it's possible to put together a blended portfolio of Bitcoin and Ethereum using only ETFs.
Together, Bitcoin and Ethereum account for nearly 75% of the value of the crypto market and should be the two linchpins of any portfolio.
It's understandable why many first-time crypto investors experience sticker shock when they start thinking of investing in the crypto market. Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) is now trading for almost $120,000. And Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH), the world's second-largest cryptocurrency, is now trading for more than $4,000.
However, there's an easy, no-brainer way to gain exposure to both of these top cryptocurrencies for $500 and still have some money left over. Here's how to do it.
Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Learn More »
Spot crypto ETFs
If you choose to invest directly in the crypto market, $500 will only get you about .004 BTC or .1 ETH. There's nothing wrong, of course, with holding fractional amounts of these cryptocurrencies. But there's admittedly something very satisfying about owning full amounts of anything. And that includes crypto.
Thus, one option might be to explore the new spot crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs). There are now plenty of choices for both Bitcoin and Ethereum, but most investors tend to gravitate to the spot crypto ETFs from BlackRock (NYSE: BLK). For Bitcoin, that's the iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (NASDAQ: IBIT), and for Ethereum, it's the iShares Ethereum Trust ETF (NASDAQ: ETHA).
Both of these ETFs are designed to track the price performance of the underlying cryptocurrency. If Bitcoin goes up by 10%, the price of the ETF should go up 10% as well. Thus, owning these spot crypto ETFs is tantamount to owning the underlying cryptocurrency. Instead of buying them in the crypto market, you can gain access to them as easily as any other publicly traded ETF or stock.
That makes them perfect for gaining access to Bitcoin and Ethereum at dramatically reduced prices. For example, the iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF is now trading for about $67, while the iShares Ethereum Trust ETF is now trading for $33. Of course, you don't have to choose the BlackRock ETFs. You could just as easily pair up Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs from other asset managers.
Putting $500 to work in crypto
If you have $500, you can very easily create a blended Bitcoin-Ethereum portfolio. The easiest way to do this is by comparing the market caps of the top cryptocurrencies to the total value of the crypto market (which is currently about $4 trillion) and using that to come up with the optimal weighting for each.
Bitcoin, with a market cap of about $2.4 trillion, accounts for almost 60% of the total market cap of crypto. Ethereum, with a market cap of $530 billion, accounts for roughly 13% of the market cap of crypto. Smaller cryptocurrencies make up the rest. For example, XRP (CRYPTO: XRP) chips in another 5%, while Solana (CRYPTO: SOL) adds another 2.5%.
Thus, if you were looking for a diversified crypto portfolio, you would likely start with a mix of 60% Bitcoin, 13% Ethereum, 5% XRP, and 2.5% Solana. From there, you can either ratchet up or down your Bitcoin and Ethereum allocations, or add in several other cryptocurrencies. Since most investors are only focused on the top cryptocurrencies, one option would be a 70% Bitcoin, 30% Ethereum blend.
It's relatively easy to achieve the desired blend with the ETFs. Of the $500, use $350 to buy about five shares of the iShares Bitcoin Trust and $140 to buy four shares of the iShares Ethereum Trust. Plus, there's $10 left over. You could easily put that to work by scooping up three XRP tokens (at a cost of roughly $10), or putting that money into dollar-pegged stablecoins while you wait for new investment opportunities.
This might sound relatively simplistic, and to a certain degree, it is. But it's also the same strategy that diversified crypto ETFs are using today. For example, Trump Media & Technology Group (NASDAQ: DJT) plans to launch a new crypto ETF -- the Truth Social Crypto Blue Chip ETF -- that includes a mix of different cryptocurrencies. The desired mix is 70% Bitcoin, 15% Ethereum, 8% Solana, and 2% XRP.
Buy and hold for decades
The best part about a crypto ETF strategy is that you can buy and hold Bitcoin and Ethereum for decades. In contrast, if you start moving money into riskier, more speculative cryptocurrencies, you likely won't be holding them for long.
For first-time crypto investors, I can't think of a better approach than to focus on just Bitcoin and Ethereum, and use low-cost ETFs to get exposure to them. Depending on your overall risk tolerance, your desired blend might change, but it's safe to say that Bitcoin should account for the lion's share of your total crypto exposure.
Should you invest $1,000 in iShares Bitcoin Trust right now?
Before you buy stock in iShares Bitcoin Trust, consider this:
The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and iShares Bitcoin Trust wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.
Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $668,155!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,106,071!*
Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 1,070% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 184% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.
*Stock Advisor returns as of August 13, 2025
Dominic Basulto has positions in Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and XRP. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and XRP. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

Got $500? 2 Cryptocurrencies to Buy and Hold for Decades

Key Points
Crypto is still a relatively new sector.
Younger investors can take more risk in their investing decisions because they have more time to smooth out the volatility.
These three cryptocurrencies definitely have the best chance for success, in my view.
It may feel as if cryptocurrencies have been around forever, considering how much of the news cycle they consume. In reality, they have only been around for a little more than 15 years, with Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC), the world's largest cryptocurrency, having been created at the very beginning of 2009. That means there's still a lot we don't know about this burgeoning sector.
It also means that cryptocurrencies could be very appealing for younger investors, who can afford to be more aggressive. Now, that doesn't mean this group should invest a majority of their portfolios in cryptocurrencies. It means that they can allocate a smaller percentage of capital and hopefully experience meaningful gains over time. Here are three cryptocurrencies for individuals with a 40-year time horizon.
Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Learn More »
Bitcoin: A potentially unique diversifier
If there's one cryptocurrency that looks to be built for the long haul, it's definitely Bitcoin. The token has survived huge drawdowns on several occasions now, only to come back stronger than before. What's clearly driving Bitcoin is a growing belief that the cryptocurrency and its finite supply of 21 million coins could be a form of digital gold, and therefore a hedge against inflation and other types of volatility.
Bitcoin has surged to new all-time highs several times this year and has even seen its volatility decline. With President Donald Trump's administration removing regulatory barriers, more mainstream financial institutions, investors, and businesses are willing to buy crypto. The first place they will likely turn to is Bitcoin.
It's hard to know if Bitcoin is truly digital gold, as some say. But this view is being increasingly accepted by the market, and that's no small task on its own. If it's true, then Bitcoin could become a more commonly accepted part of the traditional portfolio because it offers a unique form of diversification, similar to gold or commodities like oil.
Ethereum: The way to play decentralized finance
If there is a second cryptocurrency to buy, it's easily Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH). Ethereum has always played the No. 2 role behind Bitcoin in terms of market value, although it's taken a very different path.
Seeing the energy-intensive nature of Bitcoin's proof-of-work consensus mechanism, in which the network has miners solve a cryptographic puzzle as quickly as possible in order to validate transactions and mint new blocks, Ethereum decided to transition its network to a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism. In this energy-efficient method, Ethereum holders pledge their tokens as collateral to have a chance to get selected by the network to validate transactions and create new blocks.
Ethereum is also the go-to blockchain network for decentralized applications powered by smart contract technology that can essentially automate contracts if a set of terms and conditions is met. Many see great potential to integrate dApps into many different sectors, and most dApp activity is conducted on the Ethereum blockchain. So, given this strong potential real-world utility, Ethereum could see much more usage and demand if smart contracts take off. Most stablecoin activity is also taking place on Ethereum's network -- another reason to be bullish on Ethereum.
Solana: Potentially the strongest technical network
One common way to look for good cryptocurrencies to invest in is to look for good use cases, many of which are powered by blockchain networks that are strong from a technical perspective. Arguably no network is better than Solana (CRYPTO: SOL).
Not only is Solana one of the few networks to run on proof-of-stake, it also uses a timing mechanism called proof-of-history. This creates a sequence of transactions in advance that can be verified and lets the network validate and confirm transactions more efficiently, allowing Solana's network to process more transactions per second (TPS).
Solana is theoretically capable of processing 65,000 TPS. In fact, a new validator on Solana's network reportedly achieved 1 million TPS in a test environment, showing the network's enormous potential. A network this fast could significantly disrupt many sectors, like international payments, decentralized applications, and the tokenization of real-world assets.
Should you invest $1,000 in Bitcoin right now?
Before you buy stock in Bitcoin, consider this:
The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Bitcoin wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.
Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $649,544!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,113,059!*
Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 1,062% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 185% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.
*Stock Advisor returns as of August 13, 2025
Bram Berkowitz has positions in Bitcoin and Ethereum. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

3 Cryptocurrencies For Individual Investors With a 40-Year Time Horizon

Key Points
XRP currently trades for about $3, after soaring in value by more than 400% since the U.S. election.
XRP has a 65% chance of hitting $4 this year, and a 29% chance of hitting $5.
Even at $3, XRP may be wildly overvalued, according to one key metric.
If you are looking for a high-upside cryptocurrency, look no further than XRP (CRYPTO: XRP). Currently trading for just $3.08 (as of Aug. 14), XRP is up more than 400% since November. The positive growth catalysts for XRP just keep on coming.
All this makes XRP the highest-upside cryptocurrency you can buy with $1,000. Let's take a closer look.
Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Continue »
Price targets for XRP
One way to see just how much higher XRP might go this year is by looking at online prediction markets, where people are making daily trades based on where they think the prices of cryptocurrencies such as XRP might be headed.
Right now, online prediction markets are giving XRP a 65% chance of hitting $4 this year, and a 29% chance of hitting $5. Considering that XRP hit a 52-week high of $3.65 earlier this summer, both of these price targets appear to be within reach.
Moreover, in April, Standard Chartered predicted that XRP might soar as high as $5.50 this year, based on strong underlying fundamentals and a number of emerging growth catalysts.
So, based on XRP's current price of a bit more than $3, there is a reasonably good chance that it might increase in value by as much as 80% this year. Aside from perhaps Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC), it's hard to think of a higher-upside cryptocurrency for 2025.
Potential growth catalysts
The good news for crypto investors is that XRP has a number of potential growth catalysts in play. Being able to deliver on just one of them might be enough to push XRP higher.
According to Bloomberg, XRP now has a 95% chance of getting new spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission this year. These spot ETFs would make it much easier for institutional investors to get exposure to XRP. By some estimates, this could result in $8 billion in new money flowing into XRP. That would almost certainly help to push up the price of XRP.
Moreover, the SEC recently wrapped up its long-running case against Ripple, the company behind the XRP token. This case, which dates back to December 2020, alleged that XRP was a security, and that the sale of XRP represented a sale of unregistered securities. With this legal battle in the rear view mirror, Ripple is able to go back to business in the U.S. market, and that likely means new growth for the XRP blockchain ecosystem.
Ripple has already explored a number of alternatives to boost the value of XRP. These include the launch of a stablecoin in December 2024, and the embrace of new real world asset (RWA) tokenization initiatives. According to top consulting firms, RWA tokenization is a potential multi-trillion-dollar market opportunity. So if XRP gains even a tiny market share of this market, there is even more potential for XRP to soar.
But is XRP overvalued?
Just keep in mind: There has always been an enormous amount of buzz, hype, and speculation surrounding XRP, and it has rarely played out as expected. In more than a decade, XRP has never traded higher than $3.84. Its reputation as a high-upside cryptocurrency dates back to 2018, when there were significantly fewer cryptocurrencies to choose from. Until recently, XRP has fizzled, primarily due to all the regulatory uncertainty surrounding its SEC litigation.
Moreover, an often-used market signal is flashing red right now. If you compare the total market cap of XRP ($190 billion) to the amount of total value locked (TVL) on the XRP blockchain ($88 million), there is a serious mismatch. This multiple for XRP is 2,159. By way of comparison, the multiple for Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) is just 5.7, and the multiple for Solana (CRYPTO: SOL) is 9.6.
If anything, this shows that XRP has been hyped up to incredible levels, with little real activity actually taking place on the blockchain to support such a high valuation.
A key date on the calendar
An important moment for XRP is coming soon. The SEC is scheduled to rule on the new spot XRP ETFs by mid-October, and some analysts think a decision might come as soon as September. Wrapping up the SEC case in August was absolutely critical in that regard. Until all the legal and regulatory matters were resolved, the SEC was unlikely to approve new ETFs.
An investment in XRP is hardly without risk. But with high risk also comes high upside reward. If you have $1,000, and are looking for a high-upside cryptocurrency with the potential to double in value within an incredibly short period of time, XRP is an enticing option.
Should you invest $1,000 in XRP right now?
Before you buy stock in XRP, consider this:
The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and XRP wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.
Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $649,544!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,113,059!*
Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 1,062% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 185% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.
*Stock Advisor returns as of August 13, 2025
Dominic Basulto has positions in Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and XRP. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and XRP. The Motley Fool recommends Standard Chartered Plc. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

The Highest-Upside Cryptocurrency to Buy With $1,000

Key Points
Solana's price has been trending upward recently.
It's gaining ground against Ethereum, continuing the prior trend.
It'll need to keep building up its case for institutional adoption to proceed.
Solana's (CRYPTO: SOL) price has climbed by around 15% since late April, moving from about $146 to roughly $167 as I write this.
The move is hardly breathtaking. Still, it prompts a pair of bigger questions. Namely, does an extra $1,000 of your portfolio belong allocated to this coin before the next leg up? And does it have what it takes to continue gaining in value for at least the next few years? Let's address both of these questions at once.
Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Continue »
This is a platform that's hitting its stride and fitting the market
The story of Solana is one of an increasingly tight fit between its product, -- another way of saying its blockchain -- and what the market is looking for in terms of chain features.
Solana's calling cards are its speed and cheapness.
Over the last week, it averaged 2.2 million daily active wallet addresses and about 98 million daily transactions, all of which it accomplished while keeping transaction fees near fractions of a cent and its average transaction times within a second or two. Those figures tower over every major rival, especially incumbents like Ethereum, and the disparity explains why developers who are making consumer-scale decentralized apps (dApps) keep flocking to the chain.
The upshot of these stellar performance features is that big money in the traditional financial sector is noticing. Faster settlement times and lower collateral demands are the bait for institutions, and fee savings are the hook.
In late May, digital assets company R3 struck a deal with the Solana Foundation so its partnered financial institutions, most of which are big banks, can issue and trade tokenized stocks and bonds on the chain. The partnership vaults Solana into pole position for a slice of an asset tokenization market that could be worth as much as $16 trillion by 2030, according to estimates developed by Boston Consulting Group (BCG).
Speed also resonates with two of crypto's newest darlings, the artificial intelligence (AI) segment, and decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePIN).
In July, the Neural AI gaming platform picked Solana for its creator-focused launchpad, citing sub-second confirmations as critical for real-time game logic. Other AI projects are flocking to the chain under the rationale that AI agents will be cheaper to operate when they don't need to hold as much of the chain's native token in their wallet to perform transactions compared to elsewhere.
On the DePIN front, Solana-based wireless, compute, and mapping protocols have generated more than $3 million in on-chain revenue this year after setting a monthly record in June. Faster transaction times matter for accessing physical infrastructure apps because, for example, it'd be very frustrating if you had to wait for more than a moment or two to pay for access to a cafe's wifi network using a cryptocurrency.
None of this traction is accidental. High throughput attracts developers, they ship apps that attract users, users attract capital seeking a return on investment in on-chain projects, and then swelling usage of the chain justifies even more ambitious upgrades to its throughput to keep the cycle going.
You could still lose some of your $1,000
If your portfolio is big enough, taking on $1,000 of Solana isn't going to make or break it, but it's still important to appreciate the risks of an investment before diving in.
In the past, most recently in February 2024, Solana has suffered headline-grabbing outages of its network. Those have been anomalies, and there is no indication that they will occur again, yet on a long enough timescale, they could. If the chain displays instability too frequently, which, once again, does not look probable even though it's possible, institutional investors could get spooked and look for other solutions.
Separately, regulatory risk looms if U.S. government agencies shift their views on public-chain settlement of transactions, or their views on how tokenized assets must be handled. Solana's compliance feature set is far from vestigial, but it hasn't yet had a real stress test either. There will likely need to be more tech development within that space, which implies a risk of getting it wrong.
Competition is also fierce. Ethereum's layer-2 (L2) roll-ups are cheaper every quarter, and emerging layer-1s (L1s) chase the same AI and DePIN segments as Solana, even if they're starting from a vastly smaller capital base. It isn't likely that any of those competitors will supplant Solana entirely, but at least somewhat hampering the growth of its market share in their focus segments is all but assured.
Still, if Solana secures a meaningful share of asset tokenization, maintains its AI and DePIN leadership, and avoids catastrophic technical stumbles, today's price could look tiny in five years. For most investors, this argues in favor of a dollar-cost averaging strategy rather than a single lump-sum plunge. In other words, treat SOL like a high-volatility growth stock that's highly unpredictable from day-to-day, yet rewarding over the years if the thesis holds.
Should you invest $1,000 in Solana right now?
Before you buy stock in Solana, consider this:
The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Solana wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.
Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $636,563!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,108,033!*
Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 1,047% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 181% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.
*Stock Advisor returns as of August 4, 2025
Alex Carchidi has positions in Ethereum and Solana. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Ethereum and Solana. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

Up 15% in 3 Months, Is Solana a Buy Right Now With $1,000?

Key Points
The Federal Reserve opted not to change interest rates on July 30.
Cryptocurrencies supposedly tend to perform better when rates are lower.
The crypto bull market isn't about to lose speed as a result of this decision.
The Federal Reserve just left its benchmark rate frozen between 4.25% and 4.5% for a fifth straight meeting, at its July 30 vote. In a rare occurrence, Governors Michelle Bowman and Christopher Waller departed from their colleagues and voted for a 25-basis-point trim, the first time two board members have broken ranks in the past three decades.
Cryptocurrency investors love to read the Fed's tea leaves. Cheap money buoyed past bull runs, and tight money cooled them -- or so the narrative goes. Yet the digital asset market of 2025 is riding a different set of engines, many of which run just fine without monetary octane. Here's how the move is likely to affect the sector.
Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Learn More »
Steady rates are only half the story
To recap, the Fed sets the prime interest rate, which in turn affects the cost of borrowing money.
Lower rates mean that money is cheaper to borrow, which tends to have the effect of juicing the financial system with more cash. They also mean that there's a lower payout from government-issued bonds, which are typically considered to be the safest. As a result, investors tend to be incentivized to chase riskier investments (like crypto) as safe yields become unattractively low.
This go around, holding rates steady surprised nobody, but the market immediately clipped the odds of a September rate cut to 46%, and it is now questionable whether the rest of the year will feature any rate cuts at all, in contradiction to the market's past expectations on average. That matters because it tightens financial conditions at the margin where the expectation had been for them to loosen.
The most important macro element here is that inflation is no longer plunging.
June's Consumer Price Index (CPI) readout clocked in at 2.7% year over year, up from 2.4% the month before. The Fed can't slash aggressively while core prices drift up and the inflationary effects of tariffs percolate through supply chains. So the White House's chaotic tariff policies are already having a direct and detrimental impact on the economy, which the Fed is identifying explicitly and responding to.
For major crypto coins the takeaway is mixed, at least at first glance. Higher real yields raise the opportunity cost of holding unstaked crypto assets without a yield, such as Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC), XRP (CRYPTO: XRP), Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH), and Solana (CRYPTO: SOL). But individual shifts in the interest rate rarely derail a structural crypto bull phase; recall that 2020's rally began with the Fed on hold.
More important is whether liquidity outright contracts. So far, it hasn't.
Crypto's own tailwinds matter more here
There's reason to believe that the Fed could hold tight on interest rates through the remainder of 2025 and it wouldn't slow down the cryptocurrency sector much. Major capital inflows from financial institutions are the biggest part of the story here.
Those institutions are how fresh capital keeps finding on-ramps. Spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) logged $6.6 billion of net inflows in just 12 trading days through July 19. Demand on that scale insulates prices from modest policy shifts.
Network upgrades are stacking up, too. Ethereum executed its Pectra update on May 7, boosting throughput and implementing a few fixes aimed squarely at institutional users. Cheaper, faster blockchain space during an interest rate plateau is still cheaper and faster when rates dip, so rates aren't about to stop institutions from loading up.
Meanwhile, Solana currently enjoys 99% odds of winning approval from regulators for a spot ETF before 2026, per prediction markets, and there are already hints of pent-up demand among institutional investors. ETF anticipation acts like an embedded call option on policy easing. If the Fed cuts, Solana's liquidity backdrop improves, but even a pause leaves the ETF catalyst fully intact.
Finally, XRP added its own growth lever on June 30 when its new sidechain went live, enabling Ethereum-style smart contracts to tap XRP liquidity in the new structure. The sidechain does not care whether the fed funds rate is at 4.5% or 4.25%; it cares about developer migration and transaction volume, which will likely occur to at least some degree regardless of what the cost of borrowing money is.
Put together, the sector's narrative at the moment looks strong, regardless of macro conditions.
Yes, a pair of rate cuts would likely bolster sentiment and increase the appetite for risk, but investors betting solely on easier policy are ignoring the real engines that are running now, which are cash and developer talent continuing to migrate on-chain with speed.
Practical positioning for the back half of 2025 boils down to discipline.
In that respect, it's sensible to dollar-cost average (DCA) rather than chase headlines -- and to steer clear of coins that lack clear upcoming catalysts.
Should you invest $1,000 in XRP right now?
Before you buy stock in XRP, consider this:
The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and XRP wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.
Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $625,254!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,090,257!*
Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 1,036% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 181% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.
*Stock Advisor returns as of July 29, 2025
Alex Carchidi has positions in Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and XRP. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

Emeren Group Ltd

Sign up and unlock all the capabilities of the AI-screener