The U.S. could see its first spot XRP exchange-traded fund (ETF) debut this Thursday, in what would mark a significant milestone for Ripple and the broader cryptocurrency market.
Canary Funds has filed a Form 8-A with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), signaling the Canary XRP Trust is ready to begin trading. According to Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas, the filing represents the final procedural step before the ETF’s activation.
Pending Nasdaq’s certification, expected by 5:30 p.m. ET on Wednesday, the fund will officially go live. Once approved, it will list under the Securities Act of 1933, providing direct exposure to XRP rather than through futures contracts or mixed-asset structures.
A successful launch could expand XRP’s liquidity base and attract institutional investors and registered investment advisers (RIAs) who previously avoided direct crypto exposure beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum.
The product would be fully backed one-to-one by XRP held in custody with a regulated trust — differentiating it from REX-Osprey’s $XRPR ETF, which offers partial exposure under the Investment Company Act of 1940 and carries higher tracking costs and tax inefficiencies.
If approved, Canary’s ETF would arrive almost two years after the first spot Bitcoin ETFs launched in January 2024, signaling growing regulatory comfort with altcoin-based investment products. Analysts suggest this could pave the way for broader crypto ETF diversification, particularly into assets with real-world payment and settlement use cases.
At publication time, XRP traded near $2.48, down 5% over the past 24 hours, amid a broader market pullback.
With spot Ether ETFs now trading and Solana ETF applications under review, the XRP approval could mark the next phase of mainstream adoption for digital assets beyond the market’s two largest cryptocurrencies.
