According to the recent filing of the US Securities and Exchange Commission, any coin with at least six months of futures trading on a platform such as Coinbase’s derivatives exchange can qualify for an exchange-traded product.
Developments around in-kind creation and redemption also matter. Based on reports from crypto lawyer Bill Morgan, this change lets authorized participants create or redeem ETF shares using actual cryptocurrency rather than cash.
The revision slashes settlement costs and lines up crypto products with how gold and other commodity ETPs work. Market makers can now back ETFs with real tokens, cutting out extra steps.
Balchunas and his team have tracked every filing and rule tweak. They say these updated listing standards are the last major barrier. With futures already trading for multiple altcoins, issuers need only get the final green light from the SEC. That could happen by early fall, he suggests.
A key hurdle remains the legal fight between Ripple and the SEC. Based on reports, both sides may drop appeals ahead of an August 15 status report deadline. If that happens, it would remove a major overhang on XRP ETF applications.
The SEC has already extended Franklin Templeton’s review through the end of 2025, but this new filing hints those long waits might wrap up sooner.
Legal experts like former SEC lawyer Marc Fagel believe a dismissal of appeals would clear one of the last big obstacles. Then only final SEC sign-off would stand between issuers and live trading.
Featured image from Meta, chart from TradingView
