After cryptocurrency exchange Gemini followed the example of Coinbase and added XRP to its portfolio, it has sparked speculation of a possible XRP exchange-traded fund (ETF), particularly in light of the previous spot Bitcoin (BTC) ETF filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Indeed, as Fox Business journalist Eleanor Terrett shared that Gemini has officially started offering XRP on its platform, Bloomberg’s ETF research analyst James Seyffart addressed the speculation regarding the possible XRP ETF launch in a post on X (formerly Twitter) on August 10.
Specifically, according to Seyffart, an XRP ETF is unlikely due to the SEC’s current negative stance on cryptocurrencies, crypto spot ETFs, and Ripple, against whom it has waged a protracted legal battle, as well as a lack of demand from issuers to even give it a shot. As he explained:
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“Don’t think there’s enough to launch an XRP ETF with this SEC. And there seems to be essentially zero demand from issuers to try.”
Attempts at spot crypto ETF
As a reminder, the Winklevoss twins, Cameron and Tyler, who co-founded crypto trading platform Gemini, first filed for a spot Bitcoin ETF-like trust in July 2013 in an effort to create an investment vehicle that tracks the price of Bitcoin and trades in much the same manner to stocks on exchanges like the Nasdaq (NASDAQ: NDAQ).
However, the SEC ultimately rejected this filing, along with their second attempt in 2018, claiming that no spot proposals do enough to protect investors from “fraudulent and manipulative acts and practices,” whereas future-based Bitcoin ETFs have received a regulatory green light in the US.
Meanwhile, the SEC approved the first leveraged Bitcoin futures ETF – Volatility Shares 2x Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITX), which launched on June 27, 2023, on the Chicago Board Options (NYSE: CBOE) BZX Exchange and “seeks investment results that correspond to two times (2x) the return of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) Bitcoin Futures Daily Roll Index.”
As things stand, the XRP token was at press time changing hands at the price of $0.631, indicating an increase of 0.33% in the last 24 hours, recording a 4.64% drop across the previous seven days but still gaining 33.01% on its monthly chart, according to the data retrieved on August 11.
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