Solana, Ethereum, XRP ETF approved after Bitcoin: Standard Chartered

More cryptocurrency ETFs are coming soon.

Digital assets researchers at British multinational bank Standard Chartered wrote in a note on Friday: Solana and XRP They will soon have their own exchange-traded funds.

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved yesterday 8 spot Ethereum ETFs. The unexpected historic move means traditional investors can now buy shares that track the price of the second-largest digital asset. This move follows the approval of a spot Bitcoin ETF in January.

Geoffrey Kendrick, head of cryptocurrency research and emerging markets foreign currencies at Standard Chartered, said it was now only a matter of time before another major digital coin received ETF wrapper status.

“For other coins (e.g. SOL,

“Other ETH-like coins (many of which the SEC claimed were securities in the 2023 XRP case) are also not securities,” Kendrick continued. “In some cases, the core technology is so similar to ETH that it will be difficult for the SEC to argue that it is a security given ETH’s position.”

Industry observers and analysts were pessimistic about the approval of an Ethereum spot ETF this week. That’s because the SEC has had little contact with asset managers wishing to withdraw their funds.

Then, fund managers aiming to launch products Frantically submitting revision documents The process proceeds amidst speculation about politically motivated changes in philosophy. By Thursday afternoon, the SEC had given them the green light.

The approval of the Ethereum ETF comes as a surprise as regulators have cracked down harshly on the cryptocurrency industry (according to some lawmakers). There was one high-profile lawsuit against the Wall Street watchdog group. charge The SEC wanted to designate Ethereum as a security rather than a commodity.

In 2023, Ripple, a fintech company whose founders launched XRP, won a partial victory in court A lawsuit was filed against the SEC when a judge ruled that programmatic sales of XRP to retail investors did not qualify as a security as the SEC claimed.

A judge ruled that the $728 million institutional sales agreement amounted to a sale of unregistered securities, but the news was interpreted positively by the industry.

Under the leadership of SEC Chairman Gary Gensler The regulator claimed Many coins and tokens are securities and therefore are breaking the law by offering them for sale to investors.

Kendrick added in the note that Ethereum should reach $8,000 per coin by the end of the year.

Bank researchers previously said Bitcoin could reach $150,000 per coin by the end of 2024. He added that prices remain realistic today due to the ETF’s continued success.

Editor: Andrew Hayward