Ripple and Galaxy Digital CEOs Identify Spot ETF Contenders

Ripple’s CEO, Brad Garlinghouse, told Fox Business that the emergence of spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) based on XRP is “inevitable.”

#Ripple CEO @bgarlinghouse

Brad Garlinghouse: “A #XRP ETF is just simply inevitable.” Fox Business pic.twitter.com/oJAm5sCrWW

— ????XRP (@BankXRP) June 4, 2024

“I think we will see them in 2025. People don’t want to deal with just one commodity,” he added.

Garlinghouse believes the launch of an Ethereum ETF will pave the way for other cryptocurrencies to enter the stock market. It “makes sense” to add more products to broaden investors’ trading opportunities.

On May 23, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved 19b-4 forms in applications from issuers for spot ETH ETFs. Following this, the regulator began discussions on S-1.

The Ripple CEO asserts that after approving funds for the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, it will be difficult for the SEC to deny instruments for other assets.

Among other ETF contenders, the top executive mentioned Solana (SOL) and Cardano (ADA).

Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz highlighted that over the past year, SOL has shown the most impressive results, with the coin rising 700% from $20 to $170.

Two important things in this clip:
1. Basically an admission that the Solana pump has all been because of FTX. They had to pump it. Too many bodies buried/government ties there.
2. He just can’t bring himself to say XRP
It’s not a coincidence that all the usual suspects are… pic.twitter.com/eBimzFtTrB

— Digital Asset Investor (@digitalassetbuy) June 2, 2024

Given this, Novogratz believes Solana is next in line for a spot ETF launch.

However, his comments sparked mixed reactions within the community. According to a user named Digital Asset Investor, Novogratz “essentially admitted that the SOL pump happened due to the collapse of FTX” and “numerous government ties,” as Galaxy “had to pump it.”

He also noted the CEO’s inability to “say the word XRP.”

“Solana was and remains another scam like LUNA, how many times has the network completely failed? It is not yet close to ‘Enterprise’ readiness,” remarked another user.

The possibility of Solana becoming the next ETF contender was also suggested by Matrixport co-founder Daniel Yan. Standard Chartered’s head of research, Geoffrey Kendrick, also predicted the appearance of ETFs for XRP and SOL in 2025.

Current State of Existing ETFs

Amid Bitcoin’s breakthrough of the $70,000 level at the close of the trading session on June 4, spot ETFs based on the first cryptocurrency in the U.S. attracted a net $886 million, according to SoSoValue.

This day marked the second-largest daily inflow after a record $1.05 billion recorded on March 12. Spot products based on digital gold have shown positive dynamics for 16 consecutive sessions.

The largest inflow was demonstrated by Fidelity’s FBTC (+$379 million), followed by BlackRock’s IBIT (+$274 million). Even Grayscale’s GBTC, which usually sees outflows, added $26 million.

Bloomberg exchange analyst Eric Balchunas noted the positive figures.

Fidelity not messing around, big-time flows all around today for The Ten, nearly $1b in total. Second best day ever, since Mid-March. $3.3b in past 4wks, net YTD at $15b (which was top end of our 12mo est). The ‘third wave’ is turning into tidal wave. https://t.co/S9yeSHaNbV

— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) June 5, 2024

“Second best day since mid-March. $3.3 billion over the past four weeks, net inflows year-to-date reached $15 billion (this was the upper end of our 12-month estimate). The ‘third wave’ [of investments] is turning into a tidal wave,” he wrote.

Balchunas also noted the launch of the first leveraged Ethereum futures funds with x2 leverage — ETHU from “independent developers.” According to him, on the first day, the trading volume of the instrument exceeded $5 million.

The first 2x Ether Futures ETF $ETHU launched today and did over $5m in volume, which is great for a new launch AND more than all the Ether futures ETFs did combined on their first day BUT still pretty microscopic vs anything bitcoin pic.twitter.com/uAkJ6Z3gLT

— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) June 4, 2024

A similar product from ProShares will be launched this week, the analyst added.

Earlier, K33 Research suggested that in the first five months after trading begins, net inflows into spot Ethereum ETFs will range from $3.1 billion to $4.8 billion.

Back on June 4, trading began for Bitcoin ETFs from Monochrome Asset Management on the CBOE Australia.