- BlackRock’s Director of Digital Assets, Maxwell Stein, will speak at Ripple’s SWELL 2025 conference.
- The conference will feature over 600 attendees and 60+ speakers, including Nasdaq and Moody’s executives.
Ripple has disclosed that Maxwell Stein, the BlackRock Director of Digital Assets, will be a speaker at SWELL 2025, which will be held in New York City on the 4th and 5th of November. The news has generated a lot of speculation in the cryptocurrency community that the two financial giants might be collaborating.
Stein will discuss the transformative power of tokenized assets on the capital markets landscape, which directly relates to BlackRock’s growing digital asset offerings. The conference will commence with a welcome event on November 3, 2025, and then two days of focused discussions.
The event will take place at Convene Hudson Yards and is expected to bring together over 600 attendees and feature more than 60 speakers. This will be an important milestone because the conference will be the first of its kind in New York City, which is a strategic approach since New York is a crucial city in global finance.
Industry Leaders Join Distinguished Speaker Panel
Joining Stein will be Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen, CEO Brad Garlinghouse, Nasdaq chair Adena Friedman, and OKX CIO Jason Lau. The varied portfolio reflects an intersection between traditional finance and cryptocurrency.
The managing director of Moody Investor Services, Rory Callagy, will also be involved in the event with an institutional view on tokenized financial assets. The presence of both traditional financial institutions and crypto-native companies emphasizes the aim of the conference, which is to connect traditional finance to digital innovation.
Categories in the agenda include crypto, RWA tokenization, global payments, stablecoin, and economic policy. These discussions are based on the most recent priorities of financial institutions in the digital transformation.
The Ripple Swell 2025 agenda is live!
From stablecoins and payments to regulation and real-world adoption, Swell brings together the conversations shaping the future of finance.
Don’t miss your chance to join us in NYC.🗽
Request your invite today → https://t.co/WDIoO2YZPc pic.twitter.com/VBFiLKFuvw
— Ripple (@Ripple) September 4, 2025
XRP ETF Speculation Intensifies
The involvement of BlackRock has further fuelled debate over the possibility of an XRP exchange-traded fund. As BlackRock runs Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs, the company is not yet hinting at an XRP product but says it does not have XRP ETF plans yet.
The timing seems to be quite strategic due to the Ripple continuing regulatory developments. BlackRock’s presence may be an indication of institutional interest in XRP and other financial products. It is worth noting that the asset management company has already refuted rumors regarding XRP ETF applications.
The three-day event will focus on important industry challenges and opportunities. The first day is dedicated to the digital payment infrastructure and regulation. Adena Friedman of Nasdaq will discuss market structure and institutional adoption at the upper levels.
The second day focuses on stablecoin technology and cross-border payments. sessions will discuss the prevention of crimes and adherence procedures to be used in the institutions.
The last day covers the maturity of digital asset adoption and cryptocurrency innovation leadership in the United States. The conference will conclude with a keynote address by Brad Garlinghouse, which may cover Ripple’s strategic vision and positioning in the market.
At the time of writing, XRP is trading at $2.79, down 0.64% in the last 24 hours.
