XRP, the native cryptocurrency of the Ripple network, saw a significant double-digit surge of over 15% at $0.7315 late Monday following a fake BlackRock XRP Trust filing.
The price of Bitcoin often fluctuates in response to news related to BlackRock’s spot BTC exchange-traded fund (ETF), particularly when false or fabricated information surfaces.
The crypto market has witnessed this several times over the past months, with the latest involving the listing of BlackRock’s iShares ETF ticker on the official website of the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC). Many saw it as an indication that the application had finally received the approval of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Late Monday, another regulatory filing surfaced online showing that BlackRock, the New York-based mega investment firm, is pursuing an XRP exchange-traded fund. Many believed the filing to be real, especially since it was submitted to Delaware’s Division of Corporations, had a close resemblance to BlackRock’s spot Ethereum and spot Bitcoin ETF applications, and was filed under the name and address of one of the investment firm’s managing directors.
Unfortunately, the application was not made by BlackRock, making it a fraudulent one.
The filing in question was later labeled “false” by Bloomberg Intelligence Senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas, who claimed that a BlackRock spokesperson confirmed the same with him.
Balchunas explained that someone might have made the filing using the name of one of BlackRock’s executives to make people believe it was legit.
“This is false! Confirmed by BlackRock by me. Some whacko must have added using BlackRock executive name etc. Cmon man,” Balchunas said in a post on X.
The analyst’s claim was backed by James Seyffart, another ETF analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, who, aside from confirming that the filing was false, said that whoever did it should cover their tracks since he suspects the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) will look for them.
“It’s FAKE people. $XRP is already trading right where it was before it ran up 15%,” Seyffart said in a post, before adding another one that read, “That was a quick round trip. Whoever did this better have covered their tracks because the feds will be looking into them I suspect… lol.”
XRP immediately erased the massive gains it had accumulated after it was proven that the filing was false.
XRP was trading in the green zone at $0.6643 as of 4:32 a.m. ET on Tuesday, with a 24-hour trading volume up by 216.87% at $3,227,106,809. This represented a 0.91% increase in the last 24 hours and a 4.1% loss over the past seven days.
Based on the latest data from CoinMarketCap, XRP’s total circulating supply stands at 53,652,766,196 XRP, with its value up by 0.88% at a $35,631,964,486 market cap.
