The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is expected to decide as early as Thursday whether to formally consider an application for a spot XRP exchange-traded fund (ETF) filed by Grayscale.
The filing, submitted last month by NYSE Arca on behalf of Grayscale Investments, seeks permission to list and trade shares of Grayscale’s proposed XRP ETF. The SEC typically has about two weeks to accept such applications for review.
According to Fox Business reporter Eleanor Terrett, if the regulator chooses to acknowledge the filing it could do so very soon and the move – or lack thereof – should “give us a good idea” of how the SEC is seeing the asset.
As per this very helpful table from @JSeyff and @EricBalchunas, we could see the @SECGov acknowledge @Grayscale’s $XRP spot ETF filing as early as Thursday (2/13), if indeed it chooses to acknowledge it. The SEC usually has around 15 days to acknowledge a 19b-4 filing and… https://t.co/cN9skLUSHq
— Eleanor Terrett (@EleanorTerrett) February 11, 2025
Per Bloomberg analysts James Seyffart and Eric Balchunas, the current odds of the SEC approving a spot XRP ETF this year stand at 65%, below the perceived odds of approval for LTC, SOL, or DOGE ETFs.
Various asset managers have filed to list XRP ETFs – more than for other altcoins not yet traded under these funds – including Grayscale, Bitwise, Canary Capital, 21Shares, and WisdomTree.
Ripple’s Legal Battle With SEC Complicates XRP ETF Launch
The timing of the filing coincides with the tail end of a legal battle between Ripple Labs, the creator of XRP, and the SEC, which has argued that the cryptocurrency was sold by the firm as an unregistered security.
A court ruling in August offered a split decision, finding that teh asset was not a security when sold to retail investors on exchanges, but that it was a security when sold to institutions. Ripple was fined $125 million.
The SEC has appealed the ruling, and the case is now before the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Ripple has until April 16, 2025, to file its response.
