Ripple’s token ticks up as first leveraged XRP ETF hits market

It’s a good day for Ripple and its native token, XRP. Just a few weeks after the SEC dropped its appeal against the company, the first-ever XRP-based ETF is hitting the market. Teucrium Investment Advisors launched a leveraged ETF linked to XRP, which starts trading today on NYSE Arca under the ticker XXRP, according to the fund’s prospectus.

Jake Hanley, managing director and senior portfolio specialist at Teucrium, said the firm is “very excited to be the first XRP-based ETF to launch in the US and under a great ticker.”

While there are a slew of spot XRP ETF filings — which are still pending SEC approval — including from Grayscale, Bitwise, Canary, 21Shares, and WisdomTree, this is the “first-ever XRP ETF on the market.” Eric Balchunas, Bloomberg senior ETF analyst, noted the “very odd” order of operations:

In February, Bloomberg Intelligence analysts put the odds of a spot XRP ETF approval at 65%.

When Sherwood News asked why the firm opted to launch a leveraged ETF, Hanley said that if you want exposure to XRP, you “can just go on any crypto platform and buy it.” 

“We wanted something easy for double exposure,” he said, adding that this ETF met a need and that the firm has experience in leveraged vehicles.

Hanley said that this is a trading vehicle “designed for short-term, sophisticated day traders who want to position themselves to benefit from moves in XRP.”

He predicted that several other XRP derivative ETFs will hit the market “in a matter of weeks.”

“We’re happy to be first,” he said.

XRP is the fourth-largest crypto by market cap, at $114 billion, and is up 220% since a year ago.

Michael Repetny, core contributor at Marinade, said the launch underscores the growing appetite on Wall Street and among investors for more crypto ETFs.

“Altcoin ETFs, like XRP, benefit the crypto industry by introducing regulated financial products, increasing investor confidence, and potentially opening the gates to a wider range of institutional investors,” Repetny said. 

In other Ripple news, the company announced this morning it’s acquiring prime broker Hidden Road for $1.25 billion, “one of the largest deals in the digital assets space,” the press release said.

Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple, wrote:

“We are at an inflection point for the next phase of digital asset adoption — the US market is effectively open for the first time due to the regulatory overhang of the former SEC coming to an end, and the market is maturing to address the needs of traditional finance. With these tailwinds, we are continuing to pursue opportunities to massively transform the space, leveraging our position and the strengths of XRP to accelerate our business and enhance our current solutions and technology.”