• Ripple CEO has predicted the imminent approval of spot XRP ETF in the United States following the approval of similar products for Ethereum and Bitcoin.
• The changing political perspective on the altcoin industry in the United States has helped onboard more investors to the web3 and digital asset sector.

Ripple Labs CEO Brad Garlinghouse has issued a bold prediction on the imminent approval of spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) for other altcoins – led by XRP, Solana (SOL), and Cardano (ADA) – following the recent approval of spot Ethereum (ETH) ETF. Garlinghouse issued the bold prediction of more spot ETFs focused on the altcoin industry during this year’s Consensus2024 event.

The past few weeks have seen the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) shift its focus to decriminalizing the cryptocurrency industry. As Crypto News Flash previously pointed out, the US SEC recently lost its case against Debt Box and ordered it to pay a fine of nearly $1.8 million for acting in bad faith.

Consequently, Garlinghouse believes it is only a matter of time before the spot ETFs for XRP, ADA, and SOL are approved in the United States. Moreover, there are more than 50 million crypto investors in the United States already identified as potentially solid voting blocks by both sides of the political divide.

What Next for the Ripple Case?

The Ripple vs SEC case is fast approaching the end with a significant increase in settlement calls. The US SEC has already urged the court to fine Ripple up to $2 billion to finalize the settlement for selling unregistered securities in the form of XRP to institutional investors.

Ripple has, however, vehemently downplayed the $2 billion settlement by the US SEC as the XRP sales in question do not amount to even $1 billion. Notably, Ripple has publicly highlighted that it is willing to pay a fine of $10 million to finalize the ongoing lawsuit. 

To ensure crypto-friendly leaders are elected later this year, Ripple is part of the Fairshake Super PAC and has recently donated around $25 million to the course. However, Ripple might be forced to burn or sell the escrow holdings to below 20 percent to avoid being classified as a security under the FIT21 Act if the US president upholds it as law.

Impact on XRP Price Action

The ongoing legal hurdles facing Ripple have significantly outweighed XRP price action in the past few years. The large-cap altcoin, with a fully diluted valuation of about $52 billion and an average daily traded volume of around $872 million, has been in a macro consolidation mode year to date.

However, if the Ripple vs SEC case ends in favor of the blockchain payment firm, the XRP price will rise in the subsequent months to a fresh all-time high. Moreover, Ripple has significantly improved XRP liquidity through strategic partnerships and acquisitions.

According to the latest market data, XRP price has hovered around 52 cents in the past two weeks, with the downward pressure having the upper hand.