Asset Manager WisdomTree Joins Race For U.S. XRP ETF

The American asset management firm Wisdom Tree has joined the race to file for an XRP exchange-traded fund in the United States. With more than $100 billion in assets under management, Wisdom Tree is looking to give its customers exposure to the sixth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.

According to a tweet by the Fox Business journalist Eleanor Terrett, Wisdom Tree filed a registration statement for an XRP ETF in Delaware on Monday. Previous experiences suggest the next step would be officially filing for the product with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Wisdom Tree to File For XRP ETF

Wisdom Tree is the fourth company that has taken steps to file for an XRP ETF. XRP is the native cryptocurrency of the XRP Ledger (XRPL), a decentralized blockchain network built by the crypto solutions provider Ripple Labs.

Investment management company Bitwise first made the move in early October, filing a registration statement on Form S-1 with the SEC. About a week later, digital asset and crypto fund manager Canary Capital followed suit, submitting its Form S-1 filing with the SEC.

Earlier this month, the Swiss crypto ETF issuer 21Shares also applied to launch an XRP ETF with the U.S. securities agency. It is worth mentioning that the asset management giant Grayscale launched an XRP Trust in September, possibly in preparation for turning the product into an ETF as it did with its Bitcoin and Ethereum funds.

These XRP ETF filings come less than a year after the SEC approved the first set of spot Bitcoin ETFs in the United States and barely five months after the Commission did the same for Ethereum ETFs. These products, especially the Bitcoin ETFs, have recorded massive growth since their launch, with assets under management running into tens of billions of dollars.

SEC’s Ongoing Case With Ripple

Although the path to launching spot Bitcoin ETFs was a bit rocky, XRP ETFs may face even more challenges because of the coin’s history with the SEC. Ripple and the securities agency have been involved in a legal battle since 2020 over the classification of XRP as a security or commodity.

In July 2023, Ripple scored a partial win against the SEC in court; however, the case is still far from over, as last month, the Commission filed a notice for appeal against a federal judge’s ruling in the case.

On the bright side, there is optimism that Gary Gensler’s upcoming departure as the SEC chairman will usher in a crypto-friendly atmosphere.