The price of Ripple’s native token, XRP, grappled late Monday after a BlackRock spokesperson revealed that the asset manager has not filed for an XRP iShares Trust. XRP jumped to $0.75 before canceling all its gains with a downside in less than 30 minutes.
False news circulated on Monday that BlackRock has filed for an XRP iShares Trust, the first step to an exchange-traded fund (ETF) application. The news was drawn from an application on the Delaware website stating that an entity mimicking BlackRock had filed for an iShares XRP Trust.
As seen on the Delaware Department of State’s Division of Corporations website, the entity that filed for the XRP iShare Trust copied BlackRock’s name, sparking speculation that the asset manager is eyeing an XRP ETF. However, Bloomberg’s analyst, Eric Balchunas, confirmed that a BlackRock spokesperson told him the news was false.
“This is false! Confirmed by BlackRock by me. Some whacko must have added using BlackRock executive name, etc. C’mon man,” Balchunas tweeted.
Intentional?
Recent trends have shown an uptick in asset prices when managers like BlackRock filed an iShare Trust for them. Last week, Ether gained over 10% after the largest asset manager filed for an Ether iShare Trust with Delaware and later Nasdaq. The same trend followed with Bitcoin a few months ago after multiple managers filed for a Bitcoin spot ETF.
Allegedly, an organization might have taken advantage of the ETF frenzy to pump XRP and its bags. As speculations of the false XRP Delaware filing trended on X, the token gained over 30% in minutes before dumping all its gains.
Credibility at Stake
“Dear Gary Gensler, Contrary to what you may see online today, this is a highly respectable and mature industry not vulnerable to manipulation. Regards, DB,” an X user tweeted after the XRP grapple.
Bloomberg’s James Seyffart also shared the same opinion on what scenarios like this would imply for the credibility of the crypto sector.
“This isn’t the best look for the crypto industry and definitely hurts the credibility of the good actors in the space, but it was sniffed out as fake pretty quickly,” he said.
The Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) boss, Gary Gensler, had stated on several occasions that the crypto sector was full of manipulation and bad actors. He also cited these factors as the reason behind his lackadaisical attitude toward approving a spot ETF.
