On the morning of November 14th, the cryptocurrency community was abuzz with news that the asset management giant, BlackRock, had reportedly submitted an application to establish a spot ETF (Exchange-Traded Fund) for Ripple’s XRP to Delaware authorities. This application closely resembled BlackRock’s previous efforts to propose spot ETFs for Bitcoin and Ethereum, using similar language, information, and data.
Following this news, the price of XRP surged by 15%. However, BlackRock representatives swiftly denied any involvement and stated that someone had impersonated BlackRock. Consequently, XRP’s price retreated to its initial levels. At the time of writing, XRP was trading around $0.63.
Currently, Delaware authorities in the United States are conducting an investigation into the matter and have forwarded the case to the state’s Department of Justice.
However, a significant question raised by this impersonation incident is how the impostor managed to navigate the rigorous verification and approval process to impersonate BlackRock and submit an XRP ETF registration in Delaware. According to the state’s securities registration agency’s website, those seeking to establish an ETF must go through seven steps, all completed online by submitting documents in PDF format.
Prior to this incident, many investors were already concerned that the approval process by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for Bitcoin and Ethereum ETF proposals could face significant obstacles.