BlackRock has not filed for a spot XRP ETF, two senior Bloomberg analysts confirmed. Some “whacko” must have made the filing using BlackRock’s executive name, one said.
Last night, a rumour began swirling that BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, has filed for a spot XRP ETF.
Speculation fuelled a brief XRP rally, which enjoyed a 15% gain in less than half an hour. If true, a spot ETF would see BlackRock invest directly in XRP – the native token of Ripple.
BlackRock, which currently awaits approval for its spot Bitcoin and Ether ETFs from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), has reportedly confirmed that it has not applied for an XRP ETF.
So where did the rumour come from?
Yesterday, a filing appeared on the Delaware Division of Corporations website appearing to be BlackRock.
The entity name was listed as the “iShares XRP Trust” – a clear grab from BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust.
The address was also listed as “BlackRock Advisors”.
Eric Balchunas, a senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg, said that a BlackRock spokesperson directly confirmed that the filing is not theirs. (BlackRock however is yet to publicly confirm this.)
“This is false,” he wrote on X. “Confirmed by BlackRock by me. Some whacko must have added using BlackRock executive name etc.”
Shortly after Balchunas’ tweet, XRP reversed its gains and is now trading at $0.66.
James Seyffart, another Bloomberg analyst, later tweeted reassuring the crypto community that the iShares Ethereum Trust is “real”.
“Lot of people now asking if the Ethereum trust filing was real after seeing the XRP trust was fake,” he wrote.
“YES. The iShares Ethereum trust filing is real and was confirmed via 19b-4 filing on Thursday. Only the XRP trust filing was fake.”
ETF speculation has had the crypto market in its teeth for the better part of six months. At the time of writing, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has around a dozen spot Bitcoin-related ETFs docket, which could receive approval any day.
Disclaimer: CryptoPlug does not recommend that any cryptocurrency should be bought, sold, or held by you. Do conduct your own due diligence and consult your financial advisor before making any investment decisions.
