Wall Street’s top regulator is mulling over applications from European asset manager CoinShares to approve the world’s first U.S.-based spot XRP and Litecoin exchange-traded funds, a Wednesday filing shows.
The funds would track the performance of XRP, the world’s third-largest cryptocurrency by market cap and Litecoin, which ranks 15th in value. The assets are among the oldest altcoins to enter the market following Bitcoin’s 2009 start.
The SEC said in the filing that comments should be submitted within 21 days of the filings’ publication. This is a standard procedure for fund managers seeking the regulator’s approval for an ETF.
The regulator will then decide how to move forward with the applications. Last week, the Nasdaq filed 19b-4 forms with the SEC requesting a rules change that would permit the two potential ETFs to list on the stock exchange. An S-1 registration statement must still receive the agency’s greenlight, but such approvals are generally a formality.
CoinShares is among a number of asset managers trying to gain approval from the regulator for new crypto ETFs, with their applications underscoring issuers’ efforts to address the voracious appetite for crypto-focused investment products.
Surging demand for crypto ETFs
The growing demand follows a year after the SEC approved 11 spot Bitcoin ETFs, allowing them to trade after a decade of denials. Those funds have given traditional investors the ability to buy shares that track the price of the largest cryptocurrency by market value.
They have also been wildly successful, breaking ETF records with the amount of capital they have drawn, with asset management giant BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) now managing about $55 billion in assets.
Other than the Bitcoin products, the SEC also approved eight Ethereum ETFs. The regulator had been slow to respond to requests from asset managers for other altcoin products under the SEC’s former Chair Gary Gensler, but the watchdog is expected to be more crypto-friendly under Trump’s pick, Paul Atkins.
Crypto markets were up in Wednesday afternoon trading with BTC changing hands near $96,000, a more than 2% gain over the past 24 hours.
Edited by James Rubin
