Bitwise launches XRP ETF despite a 25% Q4 slide – Smart bet or mistimed risk?
Key Takeaways
Why is Bitwise launching the XRP ETF strategic?
It’s a long-term wager on XRPL’s infrastructure, not short-term XRP value strikes, highlighting institutional confidence regardless of market pullbacks.
Can Ripple replicate BTC-style ETF success?
Unlikely within the brief time period, given the risk-off market, Ripple’s weak value motion, and muted ETF-driven rallies to this point.
Bitwise has formally launched Ripple’s XRP Spot ETF.
For context, the fund will cost a administration payment of 0.34%. Nonetheless, the primary month is free for the primary $500 million in belongings.
This implies early buyers can be a part of totally free so long as complete belongings stay underneath $500 million.
XRPL positioned as a long-term funds play
Strategically, nonetheless, the story goes a lot deeper.
In its official announcement, Bitwise highlighted how XRPL is integrating into the funds market, aiming to hit $250 trillion in worth by 2027.
“The Bitwise XRP ETF is about to start buying and selling on NYSE tomorrow with the ticker $XRP. Right here’s why XRP is attention-grabbing: It’s going after a large $250T cross-border funds alternative.”
In essence, this launch is a long-term wager on XRPL.
Bitwise pointed out it’s the third-largest L1 blockchain, capable of settle funds in 3-5 seconds for only a fraction of a cent, and has dealt with over 4 billion transactions with a mean each day quantity of $1.9 billion.
Notably, this marks Bitwise’s second massive 2025 wager.
The Solana [SOL] ETF has already attracted $223 million in simply two weeks, reflecting the agency’s confidence in real-world blockchain use instances.
The query now’s, can Ripple [XRP] replicate the success of different ETFs?
XRP diverges from different ETF efficiency
This season hasn’t seen an ETF launch frenzy.
SOL’s first ETF attracted almost $500 million in inflows, but its value hasn’t held. Solana remains to be the quarter’s weakest performer, down 30%+.
XRP isn’t far behind, down 25% in This fall amid broad risk-off sentiment.
In opposition to this backdrop, Bitwise’s transfer seems extra like a strategic wager on the XRPL community and its infrastructure moderately than XRP’s short-term value motion.
Nonetheless, XRPL itself hasn’t proven significant bullish momentum.
Supply: DeFiLlama
On the DeFi aspect, XRPL has misplaced roughly $50 million from its TVL since its end-July peak of $120 million. This alerts a notable pullback in community participation, regardless of ongoing institutional curiosity within the XRP ETF.
In essence, ETF launches haven’t sparked a rally, marking a transparent divergence. For comparability, the Bitcoin [BTC] ETF launch in Q1 2024 triggered an 80%+ BTC rally to its then all-time excessive of $73,000.
Given this divergence, replicating a BTC-style ETF success is troublesome for XRP, particularly with Bitwise’s launch coinciding with a risk-off market and XRP’s personal weak value motion, making it a strategic however dangerous wager.
