The American dream. While theapproval of Bitcoin ETFs in the USA, a little over a month ago, shook our ecosystem and set off a real fever. And, it seems that ETF fever is gaining ground. Brad Garlinghouse, the CEO of Ripple, is also contaminated, not hiding his timid dream of an XRP ETF during an interview with our colleagues at Bloomberg. Explanations.
The XRP ETF, Ripple’s new nugget?
Let’s not get excited. specify that Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Rippleis still in the early stages of thinking about the subject, as he explains during his interview.
However, the idea of a Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) anchored on XRP does not fail to seduce him: he “would welcome it favorably”. For Garlinghouse, such an ETF would not only represent a step forward for Ripple; it would also symbolize a diversification opportunity for institutional investors, in constant search of new horizons.
“We think this makes sense for the XRP community as a whole. »
Furthermore, the resounding success of Bitcoin ETFs in the United States has only amplified Ripple’s desire to get its piece of the pie. Garlinghouse sees the introduction of an XRP ETF as a logical continuation, he even explains that it would be likely that other ETFs anchored on cryptocurrencies would be created.
Regulation and security: the next challenges of XRP
Although Ripple is riding a wave of success, the sky is not entirely clear for the company, which has had to face the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in a long-running legal fight.
This battle, far from over, has tested Ripple’s resilience and strategy in the face of financial regulators. The recent, albeit mixed, victory of Ripple, where judge Analisa Torres ruled in favor of the company by declaring that certain sales of XRP did not constitute investment contracts, had a bitter taste. It should also be noted that the CEO in this context does not further develop his idea: “compliance first”.
“I think the entire crypto sector needs to be in a compliance-first mindset (…)”
At the same time, Europe appears to be taking a more harmonious path with the introduction of the MiCA (Markets in Crypto-Assets) framework, aiming to establish anticipatory and unified regulation for crypto assets across the European Union. This approach contrasts with the reactive tactics of the SEC, which often regulates after the fact, and highlights a divergence in how jurisdictions approach regulating the crypto space.
There is no question here of fully transcribing Brad Garlinghouse’s words. However, Ripple and its CEO, driven by a recent partnership with Custody & Trust Company or even with WeCan, appear confident, despite the regulatory weight of the SEC still weighing on XRP. This picture, half fig, half grape, reflects the complexity, perhaps even the ambition a little too great, of seeing an XRP ETF arrive, even though nothing is won again for an ether ETF in the USA.