diff --git a/grpcurl.go b/grpcurl.go
index 891b447..a3d62f4 100644
--- a/grpcurl.go
+++ b/grpcurl.go
@@ -635,9 +635,14 @@ func BlockingDial(ctx context.Context, network, address string, creds credential
 	}
 
 	var err error
-	creds, err = xdsCredentials.NewClientCredentials(xdsCredentials.ClientOptions{FallbackCreds: creds})
-	if err != nil {
-		return nil, err
+	if strings.HasPrefix(address, "xds:///") {
+		// The xds:/// prefix is used to signal to the gRPC client to use an xDS server to resolve the
+		// target. The relevant credentials will be automatically pulled from the GRPC_XDS_BOOTSTRAP or
+		// GRPC_XDS_BOOTSTRAP_CONFIG env vars.
+		creds, err = xdsCredentials.NewClientCredentials(xdsCredentials.ClientOptions{FallbackCreds: creds})
+		if err != nil {
+			return nil, err
+		}
 	}
 
 	dialer := func(ctx context.Context, address string) (net.Conn, error) {