The Daily: Bitwise debuts spot XRP ETF, RippleX engineer explores potential for native XRP staking, and more

The following article is adapted from The Block’s newsletter, The Daily, which comes out on weekday afternoons.

Happy Thursday! In the first episode of The Block's latest podcast — Layer One — co-hosts Kelvin Sparks and Steven Gates were joined by Dragonfly Managing Partner Haseeb Qureshi and Fintech Collective General Partner Sean Lippel to discuss how poker logic meets crypto reality.

In today's newsletter, Bitwise launches a spot XRP ETF in the U.S., RippleX explores the potential for native XRP staking, Core Foundation secures an injunction against Maple Finance's rival bitcoin yield product, and more.

Meanwhile, the UK Serious Fraud Office arrests two men accused of a $28 million crypto hedge fund rug pull.

P.S. Don't forget to check out The Funding, a biweekly rundown of crypto VC trends. It's a great read — and just like The Daily, it's free to subscribe!

Bitwise debuts spot XRP ETF

Bitwise launched its U.S. spot XRP ETF on Thursday under ticker XRP, waiving its 0.34% management fee for the first month on the first $500 million in assets.

• CIO Matt Hougan said XRP's long operational history, low costs, and high throughput make it an attractive asset with a strong and vibrant community.
• Bitwise's fund becomes the second U.S. pure spot XRP product after Canary Capital's XRPC, which has already pulled in $292.6 million worth of net inflows.
• Grayscale and Franklin Templeton are expected to follow next week with their new spot XRP products, alongside Grayscale's planned Dogecoin ETF debut.
• A wave of new altcoin ETFs have hit the U.S. market in recent weeks, with Solana ETFs continuing to lead the category with six spot products and $476 million in net inflows since debuting in late October.
• Meanwhile, 21Shares also launched a leveraged Dogecoin ETF on Thursday as FalconX's acquisition of the company was finalized.

RippleX engineer explores potential for native XRP staking

RippleX Head of Engineering J. Ayo Akinyele and outgoing Ripple CTO David Schwartz outlined how native staking could work on the XRP Ledger, while stressing that such ideas remain exploratory and complex.

• Akinyele said staking would require rethinking XRPL's fee-burning model to create a sustainable rewards pool, while balancing fairness, governance, and the network's long-standing design principles.
• "For holders, these models can offer a more direct way to participate in network governance, though they can also introduce new complexities around fairness and distribution," he said.
• Schwartz weighed in with two exploratory consensus ideas — a two-layer validator model and zero-knowledge-verified smart contracts — while stressing they are technically compelling but impractical for now.

Core Foundation secures injunction blocking Maple Finance's rival bitcoin yield product

A Cayman Islands court granted Core Foundation an injunction blocking Maple Finance from launching a rival bitcoin yield product over alleged misuse of confidential information and breach of an exclusivity clause.

• Core said Maple used work product from their joint lstBTC partnership to build a competing offering, syrupBTC, while still accepting Core's capital and resources.
• The court found a serious issue to be tried, ruling that damages would be inadequate given Maple's potential head start and risk of it "dealing in or shedding" CORE tokens.
• Maple denied any wrongdoing, saying Core's actions go against the interests of lenders, and added that its broader business operations remain functional as usual.

Cipher Mining lands full-site Fluidstack lease, moves to raise $333 million for Texas expansion

Cipher Mining secured a full-site lease with Fluidstack for its 300-MW Barber Lake campus, adding $830 million in contracted revenue and up to $2 billion if optional extensions are exercised.

• Google also increased its guarantee of Fluidstack's obligations by $333 million as Cipher moves to raise the same amount through new senior secured notes.
• The financing would bring outstanding 2030 notes to roughly $1.73 billion and support continued construction of its West Texas site buildout.
• This latest deal deepens Cipher's pivot into AI hosting infrastructure, having already signed a $5.5 billion agreement with AWS earlier this month, helping briefly drive CIFR shares up more than 10% at one point on Thursday.

Coinbase adds ETH-backed loans via Morpho, letting users borrow up to $1 million

Coinbase now lets verified U.S. users (excluding New York) borrow up to $1 million in USDC against their ETH via Morpho, expanding its fast-growing onchain lending suite.

• The move follows surging demand for crypto-collateralized credit, with Coinbase's BTC-backed product, launched earlier this year, already facilitating over $1.25 billion in borrowing against $1.38 billion in posted collateral.
• Coinbase plans to add support for staked ETH and more collateral assets over time as it targets long-term holders seeking liquidity without triggering taxable events.

In the next 24 hours

• ECB President Christine Lagarde will speak at 3:30 a.m. ET on Friday. U.S. FOMC member John Williams follows at 7:30 a.m.
• Devconnect continues in Buenos Aires.

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