Ripple (XRP) appears to be laying the groundwork for a future XRP exchange-traded fund (ETF).
A recent job opening for a Senior Manager for Business Development at Ripple listed a key responsibility: “drive cryptocurrency-related ETF initiatives with internal trading teams and relevant partners.” This has led some in the crypto community to wonder whether the blockchain payments company is aligning its strategy with the evolving crypto landscape.
This development surfaces as Ripple navigates through a high-profile legal tussle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which many speculate could eventually lead to clearer regulations and the much-anticipated approval of other crypto ETFs besides the Bitcoin spot ETF.
The crypto analytics community and industry reporters have been quick to dissect the implications of this role. On Jan. 27, the cryptocurrency insights forum, Good Morning Crypto, took to X to highlight the possible significance of the little tidbit contained within the small print of the advertised position.
Eleanor Terrett of Fox Business subsequently commented on Good Morning Crypto’s post, noting that the recruitment of such an expert could represent a preliminary move toward establishing an XRP ETF.
However, Terrett pointed out the necessity of a Ripple futures ETF as a precursor to the approval of an XRP spot ETF.
She drew attention to the precedent set by the approval of Bitcoin futures by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), which was crucial for the SEC to greenlight Bitcoin spot ETFs.
Crypto journalist Colin Wu echoed Terrett’s sentiment, emphasizing the significance of the job posting in anticipation of an XRP ETF application.
Bloomberg’s James Seyffart previously highlighted the need for having XRP futures listed on a significant derivatives exchange, such as CME, before the SEC’s approval of an XRP ETF. The rationale is that the presence of XRP on CME would provide an underlying asset for the ETF to track, which is a critical requirement for ETF approval.
XRP’s performance over the broader timeframe underscores the challenges it faces amid the ongoing regulatory debate. Over the last 30 days, per data from CoinGecko, the coin has lost more than 16% of its value. It also registered a 7.3% price drop in the previous fortnight and a 3.2% loss over the last seven days.
However, in the past 24 hours, the price of XRP has gone up by a modest 1%, a change accompanied by a 24-hour trading volume of $637.9 million.
