The Truth About Ripple (XRP) ETFs: Should You Be Worried?

XRP’s price has been one of the hottest topics for discussion amongst the crypto community for a while now and that’s understandable.

After all, it’s an O.G. cryptocurrency that’s here for the past few cycles, but it’s status has been debated at length, especially during Ripple’s legal battle with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The outcome of this was long touted as a massive catalyst for XRP’s price and it appears that the dispute has reached a turning point and one that is seemingly in favor of the company.

XRP and the Outcome of the Ripple v. SEC Lawsuit

Just recently, Brad Garlinghouse, took it to social media to share the big news – the Commission quit the pursue of its appeal, essentially putting a de-facto end to the lawsuit – the moment the community was waiting for.

There it was – the massive catalyst everyone was waiting for, so how did the XRP price react? Initially, there was a sruge, but things calmed down almost immediately and the price has since retraced to the levels from before the self-proclaimed victory.

This begs the question – what now? Well, it appears that the market is chasing the next potential catalyst – namely, the approval of spot XRP exchange-traded funds in the US.

XRP ETFs: The Reality

Multiple high-profile asset managers have filed applications for the approval of a spot XRP ETF in the United States, the majority of which are awaiting decision by the end of this year. The list includes, but is not limited to Franklin Templeton, Grayscale, Bitwise, Canary Capital, and so forth.

Many industry experts are of the opinion that following Ripple’s de-facto victory in the battle against the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the path to an approval is more or less paved. Why? Well, according to the standing decision of Judge Analisa Torres, XRP sales on the secondary market to regular users do not constitute an investment contract.

But is the approval of an XRP ETF a potential catalyst for a surge in its price? This depends on one major factor – demand.

BTC has seen a massively healthy flow in spot-based ETF products since their inception (with the occasional market-drive exceptions), but that’s because of its nature and widely-accepted status of a digital store of value. Its supply is fairly distributed with no single entity controling a dominant share, which is the absolute opposite for ripple.

XRP’s supply is heavily concentrated and the company behind it – Ripple – controls the market – it’s as simple as that. No locking structures and promises can change the fact that there’s a single centralized entity capable of shifting the market dynamics at any time – something that could be seen as a major deterrent for serious investors even upon the potential approval of a spot XRP ETF.

And while a short-term surge is likely a given, the longer-term impact on ETFs on XRP’s price is far from certain.