A rigged XRP ETF filing caused a surge in XRP’s price, but the rally quickly evaporated after the filing was exposed as a sham, leading to millions in liquidations.
Within the last 24 hours, XRP experienced a rapid surge, climbing dramatically from $0.665 to over $0.73 in under 30 minutes. This surge coincided with news of the trillion-dollar asset manager BlackRock reportedly filing for an XRP exchange-traded fund (ETF).
The weight of such news caused XRP to print significant gains in minutes. However, the upsurge was short-lived, as XRP reverted to trading at $0.65 within an hour.
Notably, the bullish XRP rally extinguished itself just after starting as crypto market participants learned that the said XRP filing was a sham. Initially, the filing created a heated debate as some people argued it was genuine, given its presence on an official website in the United States.
In a recent tweet, attorney Fred Rispoli confirmed the presence of the supposed XRP filing on the Delaware Corp. Commission website. He pondered the feasibility of having a faked filing on an official portal. Besides, he noted the application is similar to BlackRock’s recent Ethereum ETF submission, save for the falsified date and name.
#XRPCommunity
My thoughts on the iShares XRP Trust story:1. It is indeed on the Delaware Corp. Commission website. I search this all the time to look up the right entity to sue in my legal cases.
2. Could someone file a fake entity? I'm only familiar in filing these in CA and…
— Fred Rispoli (@freddyriz) November 14, 2023
On the other hand, attorney Jeremy Hogan affirmed that a bogus filing can indeed be submitted. The lawyer noted it only costs $500 to register such an application on the target U.S. state website. In his words:
“It’s a fraud. But it’s actually very easy and just costs $500. You only need to file two documents, pay the money, and you get a ‘placeholder’ on the state website.”
You can spoof the formation of an "XRP ETF" Trust.
It's fraud, but it's actually very easy and just costs $500.
You only need to file two documents (attached), pay the money, and you get a "placeholder" on the state website.
That's all I can tell you-other than "good night!" pic.twitter.com/0ZuHigrxWU
— Jeremy Hogan (@attorneyjeremy1) November 14, 2023
Bogus XRP ETF Filing Causes $6.2M in Loss
Meanwhile, the development has had damaging implications for traders betting on XRP’s price.
In particular, data from prominent market tracker Coinalyze suggested that traders with a wager on XRP have lost $6.2 million in the last 24 hours. The overwhelming majority of that liquidation (72.75%) occurred within the hour the purported BlackRock XRP ETF filing surfaced.
While XRP traders that opened long positions, betting on XRP’s uptick, lost $1.841 million, the other category relinquished a more substantial $2.67 million. Put together, $4.511 was liquidated in the XRP futures market in under four hours.
Given the counterfeit XRP ETF filing and the multi-million dollar liquidation that followed, pundits have argued it was a clear case of deliberate market manipulation.
Also, a similar case happened in October when a false report claimed the approval of BlacRock’s pending Bitcoin spot ETF. The development caused Bitcoin to break above $30k in minutes.