Canary Capital Files First Form S-1 For XRP ETF With SEC

Crypto investment company Canary Capital took a big step toward launching an exchange-traded fund tied to XRP.

Crypto investment company Canary Capital took a big step toward launching an exchange-traded fund tied to XRP.

On Tuesday, the firm submitted an S-1 form to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, a key requirement for companies looking to issue a new security and be listed on a public stock exchange.

Operated by Canary Capital Group, the fund will track the price of XRP via the CME CF Ripple. If approved, the ETF would give investors “the opportunity to access the market for XRP through a traditional brokerage account without the potential barriers to entry or risks involved with acquiring and holding XRP directly,” the filing reads.

XRP currently sits at seventh on the crypto leaderboard, with $16.5 billion in market capitalization, according to CoinGecko. Its larger rivals, Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) have both been available to investors as ETFs since earlier this year, amassing billions in inflows.

The Canary Capital XRP ETF bid also comes after a federal judge in August ordered Ripple Labs to pay $125 million to the SEC for selling its unregistered institutional sales of the XRP token.

“We’re seeing encouraging signs of a more progressive regulatory environment coupled with growing demand from investors for sophisticated access to cryptocurrencies beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum — specifically investors seeking access to enterprise-grade blockchain solutions and their native tokens such as XRP,” Canary Capital’s founder Steven McClurg postulated in a statement.

The company’s application follows a similar move by Bitwise, which filed to debut its own spot XRP ETF roughly a week ago. Bitwise’s filing, like Canary’s, marks a notable push in bringing XRP into legacy financial markets through regulated ETF products.

The SEC has not approved a spot XRP ETF before, and if it does, it could face significant hurdles. Ripple has been mired in a multi-year-long legal brawl with the Securities and Exchange Commission after the regulator accused the San Francisco company of raising $1.3 billion via the sale of XRP, which it considers an unregistered security.

The SEC recently challenged a court ruling in its case against Ripple regarding XRP’s classification. This move has hindered progress toward a spot XRP product, with the lack of regulatory clarity likely delaying a potential greenlight until 2025 or even later.

While crypto companies like Crypto.com are counter-suing the SEC, most crypto spectators doubt other crypto ETFs could see the light of day under Gary Gensler’s leadership.