Jupiter Asset Management’s internal compliance team has reportedly withdrawn its investment in the 21Shares Ripple XRP exchange-traded product (ETP) due to regulatory issues in Ireland.
The firm initially invested over $2 million into the fund, incurring a loss of $834.
According to a recent report from the Financial Times, Jupiter invested $2,571,504 into the 21Shares Ripple XRP ETP (AXRP) during the first half of 2023.
However, the exact date of the initial investment wasn’t specified. Meanwhile, the ETP yielded 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, having launched in March 2019. According to 21Shares website, the ETP has assets under management (AUM) totalling $50,497,518.
The report explained that asset managers operating under Ireland’s Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities Directive (UCITS) are restricted from exposure to crypto.
After the compliance team at Jupiter detected the trade in one of its Irish UCIT funds, the company reportedly sold off the investment.
Jupiter liquidated its Ripple XRP ETP holding for $2,570,670, incurring a loss of $834.
“The trade was made, picked up by our regular oversight process and then cancelled.”
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This comes amid ongoing discussion about the potential approval of an XRP exchange-traded fund (ETF), particularly 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 speculate that it may be unlikely.
On Jan. 24, Cointelegraph reported that CoinShares’ head of product, Townsend Lansing, explained that an XRP ETF wouldn’t be feasible unless the SEC is forced to or agreed to concede that XRP is not a security.
Meanwhile, Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple, believes that the recent approval of several spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the United States will only open the door for more crypto ETFs in 2024.
However, in a recent interview with CNBC, Garlinghouse stopped short of explicitly predicting that an XRP ETF would be approved by the SEC, but he expects an Ethereum ETF to get the green light in the near future.
