- Ripple was seemingly looking to boost crypto-related ETF initiatives.
- Analysts have aired their apprehensions about such a possibility.
With the spot Bitcoin [BTC] ETFs up and running, and Ethereum [ETH] ETFs in the pipeline, a certain section of the crypto market has turned its attention to the possibility of even a spot Ripple [XRP] ETF.
Is the hype justified?
A large part of the expectations stemmed from Ripple’s legal victory against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which removed doubts about the “security” status of XRP.
However, a Fox Business journalist, who has been closely following the developments the developments around spot crypto ETFs, provided a reality check to these speculations.
Eleanor Terrett said that in order to launch an XRP spot ETF, a futures ETF would first need to be in place.
She reminded everyone that Bitcoin spot ETFs got a go-ahead partially due to SEC considering the CME Bitcoin futures market good enough to provide monitoring for fraud and manipulation.
“If XRP gets a futures ETF then it’s a step in the right direction to one day getting a spot,” Terrett opined.
Her comments came in response to a job description provided by Ripple, wherein the company was scouting for a resource who could “drive cryptocurrency-related ETF initiatives.”
Wishful thinking?
The discussions around XRP ETFs have been building for some time now. In fact, around mid-November, a fake news on the launch of an XRP ETF by BlackRock sent the coin soaring by 12%, wiping out millions of futures traders’ investments.
When asked about the prospect of an XRP ETF in the near future recently, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink declined to give a definite answer, saying, “I can’t talk about that.”
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But contrary to what XRP proponents might want to believe, an XRP ETF might be too far-fetched at this stage.
Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart aired his apprehensions about such a possibility months ago.
“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.”
