SEC has accepted for review the first application for a spot XRP ETF from WisdomTree

What’s new? The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has officially accepted for review the application to launch the XRP Trust from investment firm WisdomTree. It is a spot exchange-traded fund (ETF) that will give investors access to the $135,1 billion XRP token capitalized by fintech company Ripple.

Material by CoinDesk

What else is known? The application filed by the Cboe BZX exchange, which intends to list the fund, marks the SEC’s first formal review of a spot XRP ETF in the United States.

If approved, the product would be the first spot XRP ETF in the US, a milestone that could open the door for similar products based on other crypto assets beyond the bitcoin and Ethereum funds already approved last year.

The product will track the market price of XRP through the CME CF Ripple-Dollar Index, allowing investors to access the asset through traditional brokerage accounts without having to store the cryptocurrency in wallets themselves.

The SEC published its notice number 34-103124, initiating a more thorough evaluation of the application. The commission now has up to 240 days to issue a final ruling on it.

In the meantime, the agency has requested public comment on whether the ETF structure adequately addresses market manipulation and investor protection concerns.

Also this week, Ripple’s chief legal officer Stuart Alderoty sent a letter to the SEC’s cryptocurrency working group that the XRP token should not be treated as a security in and of itself.

“Rules must be clear not just for issuers, but for all market participants who could be unwittingly classified as securities exchanges, brokers, dealers, or issuers,” Alderoty wrote, adding that overreliance on vague terms like “fully functional” or “decentralized” creates more regulatory confusion than clarity.

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Previously, the SEC under new leadership ended a multi-year legal battle with Ripple over the status of XRP. In 2023, the court ruled that programmatic sales of XRP through crypto exchanges to retail investors did not violate securities laws, but found a violation in institutional sales.

At the time, the SEC intended to appeal the decision, but abandoned those plans after a change in leadership with the arrival of the Donald Trump administration.

This month it became known that the investment company Volatility Shares will launch the first futures XRP ETF on the US stock exchange Nasdaq.

Also, this week, Dubai authorities announced plans to tokenize real estate using Ripple’s XRP Ledger (XRPL) blockchain.