SEC, Franklin Templeton's XRP ETF approval decision postponed to June

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) postponed its approval decision for the spot XRP Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF) proposed by Franklin Templeton to mid-June. Due to this delay, the final deadline has been adjusted to June 17.

Franklin Templeton submitted a plan to list the 'Franklin XRP Fund' on the Cboe BZX exchange on March 13, and this proposal was published in the Federal Register on March 19 for public comment. The SEC was originally required by law to make a first decision by May 3, but postponed the decision citing the need for more internal review time. The SEC stated in its announcement, "A longer period is necessary to take action on the proposed rule change."

Franklin Templeton is a large financial institution managing approximately $1.5 trillion in assets, and this application is one of the most notable examples among XRP-based ETFs. The ETF is expected to be listed according to Rule 14.11(e)(4) concerning product-based trust shares of the Cboe BZX. Separately, Franklin Templeton also submitted registration documents in March for the ETF launch with an S-1 filing.

Recently, the SEC has been reviewing various cryptocurrency ETF applications. In the same week, Bitwise's decision on the submitted DOGE-based ETF was also postponed to June 15. Additionally, various applications including Solana, Ethereum, Litecoin, Penguin, and '2x Melania' are pending review. Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas commented, "Almost every coin is now on the ETF application list these days."