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21Shares joins the race to launch an XRP ETF with SEC filing
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21Shares joins the race to launch an XRP ETF with SEC filing

Cryptocurrency exchange-traded fund (ETF) issuer 21Shares wants to offer U.S. investors exposure to XRP.

The Swiss firm Friday filed an S-1 form with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to launch an XRP ETF.

If approved, the 21Shares Core XRP Trust would track the price of the seventh-largest digital coin by market capitalization, via shares traded throughout the day.

The company said in a statement that it “remains committed to working to expand American investors’ access to the cryptocurrency asset class, and we look forward to driving innovation in the United States.”

XRP is a digital coin created by the founders of fintech company Ripple. 21Shares issues ETFs and operates in cash Bitcoin And Ethereum funds in the United States following SEC approvals earlier this year.

Other asset managers, including crypto asset manager Bitwise– I hope to launch an ETF that tracks the price of XRP. Grayscale asset manager also recently launched an XRP Trustand has already converted its similar Bitcoin and Ethereum closed-end funds into suitable ETFs once the SEC approved trading of these products.

However, the SEC is currently involved in a year-long lawsuit with Ripple after struck the company with a $1.3 billion lawsuit alleging it sold unregistered securities in the form of XRP.

Ripple last year won a partial victory on the field against the regulator when a judge ruled that programmatic sales of XRP to retail investors were not considered securities. The judge ruled that $728 million in institutional sales contracts did indeed constitute unregistered securities sales, but the news was still widely seen as a victory for the crypto industry.

The SEC has since research a $2 billion fine from Ripple, but a New York court ordered the company only pays a $125 million penalty. The SEC has since appealed, but Ripple appears confident it will prevail again, according to the company’s chief legal officer Stuart Alderoty. recently said Decrypt that he believes this move will “backfire” and thus benefit the crypto industry.

Despite the ongoing legal fight, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said in an interview last week that he believed the SEC had approved an XRP ETF. is “inevitable” given the regulator’s green light for Bitcoin and Ethereum products.

Edited by Andrew Hayward

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