Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse recently took to social media platform X to react to the launch of the XRP trust by digital currency asset manager Grayscale.
Garlinghouse expressed his obvious surprise and confusion with a funny animated GIF that resonated with the XRP community.
The Ripple chief later added that he was “pleasantly” surprised to see the announcement. “As I said, given that XRP has a clear regulatory framework in the US and elsewhere, I expect it’s only a matter of time before this space starts to grow,” he said.
Earlier on Thursday, Fox Business first reported Grayscale's plans to launch a closed-end cryptocurrency investment fund.
This could be the starting point for launching an XRP exchange-traded fund.
The price of the controversial token has risen by more than 5%.
As U.Today reports, Garlinghouse has repeatedly stated that the launch of such a product was “inevitable.” Ripple's chief executive said investors won't want to have exposure to a single asset. He drew parallels between the cryptocurrency and precious metals, arguing that gold investors may also want to gain exposure to silver.
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The Ripple executive also pointed to the token's market cap to explain why it could potentially be considered by ETF issuers.
Last year, the token gained regulatory clarity in the US, with Judge Analisa Torres handing Ripple a victory by ruling that secondary sales of XRP were not unregistered securities.
In early 2021, shortly after Ripple received a high-profile lawsuit from the SEC, Grayscale liquidated its XRP Trust and removed the token from its large-cap fund. However, the token returned to the fund earlier this year.
Commenting on the recent announcement of the XRP trust, Grayscale's Raihane Sharif-Askari said that XRP could have the potential to transform traditional financial infrastructure.