According to ETF analyst Eric Balchunas, Canary Capital, a Nashville-based firm launched by alternative asset manager Valkyrie, has jumped into the XRP ETF race with its own filing.
The firm wants to tap into the growing demand for alternative cryptocurrencies with the newly proposed product. It also told Fox Business that it was seeing some signs of a more favorable regulatory environment.
Earlier this month, Bitwise, the leading crypto index fund manager, caused a stir by announcing the very first XRP ETF filing.
It came shortly before Ripple, the company associated with the XRP cryptocurrency, was slapped with an appeal by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The SEC is yet to reveal what exactly it is going to appeal. However, the prolonged legal battle will most likely complicate the approval process.
As reported by U.Today, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has confidently predicted that an XRP ETF will be eventually launched, adding that such a scenario is "inevitable."
Not a pipe dream?
Some pundits have repeatedly argued that the SEC would be reluctant to approve additional cryptocurrency ETF products since the agency recognizes only two cryptocurrencies as non-securities (Bitcoin and Ethereum).
However, Jake Chervinsky, chief legal officer at Variant, has noted that the SEC recently conceded that no assets were securities. Instead, the regulator argues that they simply cannot be offered and sold this way. The legal analyst believes that offering an altcoin in the form of an ETF product could be deemed acceptable. "Tokens themselves aren't securities, but can be offered and sold as securities depending on the circumstances of a given transaction. How could an offer or sale of a *regulated* ETF share cross that line?" he asked.
Godfrey Benjamin
Tomiwabold Olajide
Vladislav Sopov
Dan Burgin