SEC Gives Nod to ProShares XRP Futures ETFs—Trading Begins April 30
Wall Street’s crypto grudges thaw further as regulators approve another futures-backed ETF—just don’t call it a spot ETF.
ProShares gets the greenlight: The SEC quietly rubber-stamps XRP futures ETFs, adding another crypto derivative to the institutional playground. Launch set for Tuesday, April 30.
Futures, not spot: Like its Bitcoin ETF cousins, this product dodges direct asset exposure—because heaven forbid Wall Street actually holds the keys. Leveraged bets on regulatory ambiguity? Now that’s tradable.
Cynical take: Another product for hedge funds to arbitrage the gap between crypto’s chaos and traditional finance’s spreadsheet fantasies.
Impact on XRP price
The futures-ETF approval had a positive impact on the price of XRP, which rose by 3.5% over the past 24 hours to $2.27 at the time of writing, CryptoSlate data shows. The market cap of XRP now stands at over $312 billion.
It is interesting to note that the price of all the other tokens with the biggest market caps, except Bitcoin (which grew by 0.11%), has declined over the past 24 hours. This indicates that the XRP price has moved against the market, experiencing the largest spike in price among the top 10 tokens.
Ripple’s difficult relationship with the SEC has improved
The launch of XRP-related ETFs in the U.S. would be considered a big win for Ripple, the company behind XRP. Ripple was in hot water with the SEC for years. However, that has changed since Trump took over and his nominee, Paul Atkins, became SEC chairman.
Trump, who adopted a crypto-friendly stance for his second term, and Atkins, a crypto advocate and former SEC commissioner, have taken a widely different approach than their predecessors. Speaking at a roundtable held by the SEC’s Crypto Task Force on Friday, Atkins said:
“The market itself seems to indicate that the current framework badly needs attention.”
Atkins added that crypto innovation “has been stifled for the last several years” because of the SEC’s approach under former chair Gary Gensler.
In 2020, the SEC sued Ripple, alleging that it violated securities laws by selling XRP, which the agency considered to be an unregistered security.
In July 2023, Ripple secured a partial victory when the judge decided that XRP does not qualify as a security when sold on secondary markets like exchanges. However, institutional sales of XRP constituted unregistered securities—the judge levied a fine of $125 million, but the SEC appealed the decision.
On March 19, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse announced that the SEC has agreed to drop the appeal, subject to Commission vote and approval. Garlinghouse declared that the landmark “case has ended. It’s over,” calling the moment a “historic victory.”
On April 10, Ripple and the SEC jointly filed a motion to pause the proceedings of the lawsuit to discuss settlement terms.
The Ripple SEC lawsuit resolution will have broader implications on the crypto market as it would set a precedent to prove tokens traded on exchanges are not necessarily securities.
