XRP ETF Chaos: Will April 30 Bring Ecstasy or Agony for Crypto Fans?

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Picture it: somewhere deep in the labyrinths of corporate ambition, ProShares—the Gatsby of exchange-traded funds—has issued an updated filing and selected April 30 (a date, one suspects, chosen after much port and far more marketing) as the momentous occasion for its XRP futures-based ETF debut. Will the heavens open? Will XRP enthusiasts shed tasteful tears of joy? As always, dear reader, only fortune’s caprice—possibly influenced by SEC bureaucracy—knows for sure. No guarantee the ticker shall ring on time; but hope is a bullish thing with feathers. 🕊️

Cast your minds back to a less innocent age—January, to be precise—when ProShares first fired their ETF prospectus into the regulatory ether. Their cunning plan: avoid any sordid entanglement with the coin itself, and instead build an edifice of futures contracts and swap agreements. Think of it as attending a glamorous party but only sampling the hors d’oeuvres—never daring a direct tryst with the host.

The cynics say futures-based ETFs are but the prologue to that elusive Holy Grail: a spot-XRP ETF. But Rome, and indeed the City, was not built in a day—or even in a record Q1.

An ETF trailblazer

One must tip one’s hat (reluctantly, if you’re stylish) to ProShares—the same maverick outfit that foisted upon us 2021’s first futures-based Bitcoin ETF (BITO). Ah, what drama! What speculative zeal! The launch, for want of a less crass phrase, was a veritable stampede—quickly succeeded by the regulatory version of a collective hangover.
Meanwhile, Anthony Scaramucci of SkyBridge—never shy with an opinion, nor with his hair—attempted to absolve the previous SEC regime of aesthetic taste but not of sluggishness, lambasting their refusal to roll out a spot BTC ETF post-haste. Eventually, after two yawning years, such a product did arrive, to much popping of champagne corks and, presumably, the quiet sobbing of compliance officers.

“Sooner rather than later”

Now, to XRP. The distance between a futures-based ETF and the hallowed spot incarnation looks—mirabile dictu—surprisingly short. Gamblers on Polymarket, those modern-day soothsayers armed with mice and too many screens, are suddenly optimistic that spot-XRP approval could, like a jaded debutante, make its entrance before year’s end.

We’re told there are more than a dozen earnest filings lurking in the SEC’s inbox, not least from Franklin Templeton, the sort of name that probably owns several dusty globes and some serious cufflinks.

“I simply don’t see this SEC not approving spot XRP ETF. And sooner, rather than later,” chirped analyst Nate Geraci, possibly while browsing tie patterns.

Word from Kaiko (a gathering of digits, charts, and unflinchingly cold logic) is that XRP now lords it over Solana in the spot ETF steeplechase, on account of market depth and the roaring debut of Teucrium’s leveraged XRP ETF. Will Solana send flowers? Unlikely. The race continues, the crowd remains unforgivably under-dressed—and April 30 looms ahead like an anxious butler awaiting instructions. 💼🥂

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2025-04-16 08:28