Grayscale Launches First Ripple Trust in the U.S.

Grayscale, a digital asset management firm with nearly $13 billion under management, announced the XRP Trust earlier today.

The XRP Trust offers institutional investors exposure to XRP, the native token of Ripple Labs and the XRP Ledger (XRPL), a peer-to-peer network designed for international financial transactions.

XRP is one of the largest tokens in crypto, with a $31 billion market capitalization and a $55 billion fully diluted valuation (FDV).

XRP jumped 4% on the news and currently trades at $0.55. XRP is now up 15% over the last year.

The single-asset investment trust is now live and has amassed $250,000 in AUM in its opening hours.

Grayscale’s Head of Product and Research, Rayhaneh Sharif-Askary, said, “By facilitating cross-border payments that take just seconds to complete, XRP has the potential to transform the legacy financial infrastructure.”

Ripple Labs has been in an ongoing legal battle with the Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC) since 2020, when the regulator sued Ripple Labs for breaching securities laws by raising money through token sales. In July 2023, Ripple won a partial victory over the SEC after Judge Analisa Torres declared that XRP is not a security.

As a result of the ruling, XRP resumed trading on centralized exchange (CEX) Coinbase in the state of New York in May. New York residents were previously barred from buying and selling the token on Coinbase due to the lack of regulatory clarity.