Jupiter Asset Management’s internal compliance team has withdrawn its investment in the 21Shares Ripple XRP exchange-traded product (ETP) due to regulatory issues in Ireland. The company initially invested over $2 million in the fund and incurred a loss of $834.
According to a recent report from the Financial Times, Jupiter invested $2,571,504 in the 21Shares Ripple XRP ETP (AXRP) in the first half of 2023. However, the exact date of the initial investment was not specified. Meanwhile, the ETP had a one-year return of 31.7%, but it has declined by 13.2% in the past six months.
The AXRP tracks the performance of XRP (XRP) and was launched in March 2019. According to the 21Shares website, the ETP has assets under management (AUM) totaling $50,497,518.
The report explained that asset managers operating under Ireland’s Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities Directive (UCITS) are not allowed to have exposure to crypto. When Jupiter’s compliance team discovered the trade in one of its Irish UCIT funds, the company sold off the investment.
Jupiter liquidated its Ripple XRP ETP holding for $2,570,670, resulting in a loss of $834.
This comes at a time when there is ongoing discussion about the potential approval of an XRP exchange-traded fund (ETF), especially after the recent approval of 11 spot Bitcoin ETFs by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). However, due to the legal dispute between Ripple and the SEC regarding whether XRP qualifies as a security, some analysts believe it may be unlikely.
On January 24, Cointelegraph reported that CoinShares’ head of product, Townsend Lansing, explained that an XRP ETF would not be feasible unless the SEC is forced to or agrees to concede that XRP is not a security.
Meanwhile, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse believes that the recent approval of several spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the United States will only pave the way for more crypto ETFs in 2024. However, in a recent interview with CNBC, Garlinghouse did not explicitly predict the approval of an XRP ETF by the SEC, but he expects an Ethereum ETF to be approved in the near future.
Magazine: Crypto Banter’s Ran Neuner describes Ripple as ‘despicable’ and gives credit to ZachXBT: Hall of Flame.