Fake Report of BlackRock XRP ETF Triggers 15% XRP Price Spike to $0.74 in 2 Hours

The XRP price saw a substantial 15% spike from $0.6516 to a four-month high of $0.7487 within a two-hour window following fake reports of a BlackRock XRP ETF filing.

Claims of BlackRock XRP ETF

The ruckus began last night when a filing in Delaware suggested that asset manager BlackRock was looking to launch an XRP ETF. Several notable media outlets propagated the claim, including The Block, which disclosed it in a post on X. 

In addition, Bloomberg senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas also called attention to the claim, giving it more publicity. Balchunas thought it was genuine after seeing it on the Delaware list of corporations. The circulating claim stirred enthusiasm among market participants. 

However, less than an hour later, reports suggested that the ETF filing was fake, as BlackRock denied ever making such a filing. Balchunas, in a second post, noted that a spokesperson from BlackRock had confirmed that they never filed for an XRP ETF. Nonetheless, BlackRock has not released an official statement as of press time.

This is false! Confirmed by BlackRock by me. Some whacko must have added using BlackRock executive name etc. Cmon man. pic.twitter.com/cDpnycYwjQ

— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) November 13, 2023

XRP Price Responds

Enthusiasm soon turned to disappointment, but the market had already reacted to the ensuing buying spree that came with the earlier reports. Notably, within two hours following the report, XRP rallied from a price of $0.6516 to a high of $0.7487 last night. 

This marked a substantial 14.9% increase in less than two hours, demonstrating the potential effect that a genuine XRP ETF could have on the market. Interestingly, the $0.7487 high represented XRP’s highest value in four months. The last time the asset saw this price was in July.

Nonetheless, the recent upsurge was short-lived, as the subsequent reports emphasizing that the filing was bogus triggered a round of selloffs. The sudden pump and dump led to increased liquidations, as market participants on both ends suffered losses due to the erratic price movements.

Notably, the XRP market has witnessed $6.4 million in total liquidations: $4.1 million in long liquidations, and $2.3 million in short liquidations. Interestingly, 70% of the liquidations over the past 24 hours, amounting to $4.51 million, occurred in four hours following the fake report of the BlackRock XRP ETF.

The market has stabilized, with XRP up 1.78% over the past 24 hours, trading at $0.6644 as of press time. The effects of the report also reflect in XRP’s trade volume, which has skyrocketed by 220% in the last 24 hours to $3,218,415,579.

Conflicting Beliefs

With BlackRock still maintaining public silence on the situation, some community members continue to believe that the filing is genuine. One of the reasons behind this sustained confidence is the fact that the filing is still on the Delaware Integrated Compliance Information System (ICIS) website.

However, more industry pundits have come up to debunk it. Due to the filing’s similarity with BlackRock’s ETH ETF filing, some proponents suggested that either the ETH ETF and XRP ETF are fake or both of them are real. ETF analyst James Seyffart debunked this notion, stressing that the ETH ETF is real, while the XRP ETF is fake.

Lot of people now asking if the Ethereum trust filing was real after seeing the XRP trust was fake.

YES. The ishares #Ethereum trust filing is real and was confirmed via 19b-4 filing on Thursday. Only the XRP trust filing was fake. https://t.co/Lqhj8p91NO

— James Seyffart (@JSeyff) November 13, 2023

The recent event would not mark the first time a filing for a fake ETF would make the rounds in the crypto community. In April 2021, an individual impersonated Grayscale to file for financial vehicle on nahmi and theta, two crypto-focused projects, in Delaware. Grayscale’s CEO Michael Sonnenshein clarified that they were fake.