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For a brief moment today, XRP holders were in disbelief.
And for good reason. The "BlackRock iShares XRP Trust" filing in Delaware that sent the crypto asset flying 12% in just half an hour was a fake.
Someone did indeed submit the corporate registration in Delaware—but it wasn't BlackRock, a company spokesperson confirmed to Decrypt.
BlackRock, which did register the name for its iShares Ethereum Trust in Delaware last week, told Decrypt in an email that the XRP filing is false. The fake XRP trust filing was registered with the same address and contact information as BlackRock's very real ETH filing last week.
When BlackRock confirmed that the iShares Ethereum Trust entity name registration in Delaware last week was real, Etheruem shot past $2,000 for the first time in a couple months. That's because such registrations are typically a precursor to an ETF filing. In this case, things played out exactly as expected, with BlackRock later confirming its intentions for an Ethereum ETF in a Nasdaq filing.
There's been a ton of anticipation and corresponding price action in connection with Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs, especially those that would be issued by BlackRock if they're approved. The $9 trillion asset manager is a Wall Street behemoth. BlackRock made waves in the crypto industry when it submitted a filing for its iShares Bitcoin Trust in June. And each amendment or update has been followed by price rallies.
Most recently, ETF analysts at Bloomberg noted that from now until Nov. 17 there's a small window during which the Securities and Exchange Commission could approve at least 12 pending Bitcoin ETF applications. That's because the SEC pushed the deadline on all its Bitcoin ETF filings to Nov. 18 and the period for comments just elapsed.
But so far there's been no word on whether the SEC plans to approve any of the Bitcoin ETFs.
Besides the falsified XRP trust name registration today, there's been other fake out news while the industry waits on an ETF approval. In October, a false report about the SEC having approved the BlackRock Bitcoin ETF application sent the BTC price up by 10% before it crashed back down.
Edited by Guillermo Jimenez
Editor's note: This story was updated after publication to include additional details regarding BlackRock and its Bitcoin and Ethereum ETF ambitions.