BlackRock has filed a report with U.S. law enforcement authorities regarding a forged application to launch ETF based on Ripple’s XRP token. CoinDesk reports.
“Our only comment is that the matter has been referred to the Delaware Department of Justice,” the firm’s spokesman said in a statement to the publication.
According to the jurisdiction’s website, creating a new legal entity requires completing seven steps by filling out PDF forms online. It is likely that the perpetrator found and used the information of BlackRock managing director Daniel Schwiger to register the trust.
If XRP were involved in the scheme, authorities could classify the incident as fraud.
The fake news about BlackRock filing documents for the iShares XRP Trust spread in the morning of November 14. At that moment, the token’s price jumped 15% in 30 minutes, but then retraced to prior levels after a denial.
As of writing, the asset’s price had fallen to $0.6285.
Bloomberg market analyst James Seyffart noted that, for reasons unclear, some members of the crypto community denied the BlackRock filing was fraudulent.
For the strange section of crypto twitter that believes we and everyone else are wrong about the Blackrock / iShares XRP trust being a false filing: pic.twitter.com/7lXOywLKTN
— James Seyffart (@JSeyff) November 14, 2023
“My mentions are still filled with people who say, like and retweet things such as ‘this can’t be a lie’, ‘BlackRock filed the filing!’ or hint at inevitable plans to launch an XRP-ETF. I feel genuinely unwell. A fringe, cult-like mentality. Demonstrates a serious lack of intellectual ability,” the expert lamented.
On October 24, the proposed BlackRock spot Bitcoin ETF — the iShares Bitcoin Trust — appeared on the DTCC’s list of assets for which the company provides post-trade, clearing and settlement services.
Later, from the platform’s site, the ETF’s position disappeared. Reporter Colin Wu, citing unnamed analysts, reported that SEC could have contacted BlackRock, \”asking them to wait\”. In light of the news, Bitcoin’s price fell to $33,500.
Earlier, on October 16, crypto outlet Cointelegraph published a post on X about the approval of BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF. In response to the news, the price of the first cryptocurrency quickly jumped to $30,000, but also fell rapidly after reports of a fake filing.