Bitwise spot XRP ETF launches Thursday amid altcoin fund rush

Bitwise Asset Management announced the launch of its spot XRP exchange-traded fund on the New York Stock Exchange.

The ETF will start trading on Thursday under ticker XRP, with a management fee of 0.34% that is waived for the first month on the first $500 million in assets.

"XRP is a really intriguing asset for several reasons," said Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan. "It has operated successfully for a very long period of time at extremely low cost, it processes high transaction volumes, and it has a really strong and vibrant community of supporters.

XRP is currently the world's third-largest non-stablecoin cryptocurrency with a market capitalization of $127.3 billion, according to The Block's price data dashboard. Having facilitated over 4 billion transactions, XRP is challenging the cross-border payments market, the press release said.

In the U.S., Bitwise's fund will be the second spot XRP product following Canary Capital's XRPC. Canary's fund has accumulated $276.8 million in net inflows since launching last week. Bitwise previously launched the Bitwise Physical XRP ETP (GXRP) in Europe that provides investors with direct, physically-backed exposure to the cryptocurrency.

Grayscale is slated to be next, after announcing earlier Wednesday that its GXRP fund is set to launch soon. Bloomberg Analyst James Seyffart wrote on X that Grayscale's spot XRP ETP will likely go live next Monday, alongside its Dogecoin ETF, which would mark a first. 

"​​And I think the [Franklin Templeton's] XRP ETF could go live on Monday the 24th as well. Lots happening next week," Seyffart wrote. 

ETF rush

As the analyst noted, the U.S. has seen a flurry of new ETFs tracking various altcoins, with recent launches offering exposure to Solana, XRP, Litecoin and Hedera.

Besides the ETFs that have successfully launched, issuers are seeking to introduce funds that track the prices of Cardano, Avalanche, Polkadot and other cryptocurrencies.

The rush of new launches has likely been aided by the Securities and Exchange Commission's guidance clarifying the procedures for firms seeking to roll out crypto ETFs. Since then, issuers have used a different route to launch products without needing the agency's explicit sign-off. 

Outside bitcoin and ether ETFs, Solana funds have seen the strongest momentum in the number of new ETFs and total net inflows. There are currently six spot Solana ETFs since the first launched in late October, with 21Shares' TSOL going live earlier today. Spot Solana ETFs have accumulated a total net inflow of $420.4 million so far.