Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse recently took to the X social media platform to react to digital currency asset manager Grayscale launching an XRP trust.
Garlinghouse expressed his apparent surprise and bewilderment with the help of a hilarious GIF that has gained traction within the XRP community.
The Ripple executive later added that he was "pleasantly" surprised to see the announcement. "As I’ve said before, with XRP having regulatory clarity in the US and other countries, I expect it’s only a matter of time for this space to grow," he said.
Fox Business first reported earlier this Thursday that Grayscale intended to roll out a closed-end fund for the cryptocurrency.
This could be a stepping stone to eventually launching an XRP exchange-traded fund.
The price of the controversial token has spiked by more than 5%.
As reported by U.Today, Garlinghouse has repeatedly stated that the launch of such a product was "inevitable." The Ripple executive claimed that investors would not want to have single-asset exposure. He drew parallels between crypto and precious metals, arguing that gold investors might also want to get access to silver.
Alex DovbnyaThe Ripple executive also pointed to the market cap of the token in ordero to explain why it would be potentially considered by ETF issuers.
Last year, the token gained regulatory clarity in the U.S., with Judge Analisa Torres delivering a victory for Ripple by not recognizing secondary XRP sales as unregistered securities.
In early 2021, shortly after Ripple famously got sued by the SEC, Grayscale liquidated its XRP Trust and removed the token from its large-cap fund. However, the token returned to the fund earlier this year.
While commenting on the recent announcement about the XRP trust, Grayscale's Rayhaneh Sharif-Askary has said that XRP could have the potential to transform the traditional financial infrastructure.
Arman Shirinyan
Dan Burgin