Bitwise, the leading crypto index fund manager, has filed for an XRP exchange-traded fund in the state of Delaware, according to Fox Business reporter Eleanor Terrett.
For now, there is no official confirmation from Bitwise regarding the company's intention to introduce an XRP ETF. "More details to come. Stay tuned," the Fox Business reporter added in a social media post.
Gamza KhanzadaevSome have taken the recent filing with a grain of salt. Last November, scammers published a fake filing for a BackRock XRP ETF on the website for Delaware's Division of Corporations. The move was meant to fraudulently push the XRP price higher. The incident was later referred to the Delaware Department of Justice.
However, the idea of Bitwise proposing an XRP ETF does not seem to be that far-fetched. As reported by U.Today, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse previously stated that the launch of such a product was "inevitable."
While financial titans like BlackRock will not touch XRP with a ten-foot pole, some crypto-native firms might explore more exotic ETFs.
Last month, Grayscale, the leading asset manager, relaunched its XRP trust. Some analysts believe that this could set the stage for the introduction of an XRP ETF.
However, as noted by Bitwise CEIO Matt Hougan, it would be very challenging to obtain SEC approval for an ETF without a regulated futures market. "There has never been a commodity ETP...that doesn't have a related futures market," Hogan said during his appearance on the "Thinking Crypto" podcast three months ago.
The price of XRP has jumped by roughly 1.6% on the latest Bitwise news. However, the Ripple-affiliated cryptocurrency is still down more than 2% over the past 24 hours after plunging together with the broader market.
Valeria Blokhina
Dan Burgin
Vladislav Sopov
U.Today Editorial Team