SEC acknowledges spot XRP and Litecoin ETF filings from CoinShares

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission acknowledged Wednesday spot ETF filings from Nasdaq Stock Market LLC, on behalf of CoinShares, to list and trade shares of the CoinShares Litecoin ETF and CoinShares XRP ETF.

In its acknowledgments of each proposal, the SEC requested that comments be submitted within 21 days of the filing's publication in the Federal Register. After the comment period, the agency can choose to approve, disapprove or "institute proceedings" for further review.

A 19b-4 filing represents the second step in the two-part process of proposing a crypto ETF to the SEC. Once acknowledged, the filing is published in the Federal Register, triggering the agency's formal approval process.

The SEC previously acknowledged spot XRP ETF filings from 21Shares, Bitwise and Grayscale and has also acknowledged Litecoin ETF filings from Grayscale and Canary Capital.

The SEC approved the listing of spot Bitcoin ETFs in January 2024 and spot Ethereum ETFs in July. A new crypto task force, led by Republican SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce, will work on distinguishing which “crypto assets” are securities, among many other priorities.

Bloomberg ETF analysts estimate that Litecoin funds have the highest chance of approval, recently putting the odds at a 90% chance of approval. XRP products have a 65% likelihood of approval, they said.

XRP is the third-largest cryptocurrency by market cap ($151 billion), while Litecoin is the 15th-largest crypto with a $10.3 billion market cap, according to The Block's price data.