Eric Balchunas, one of the leading ETF analysts, has poured cold water on the prospects of an XRP exchange-traded fund being approved by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the near future.
In fact, according to Balchunas, the SEC is likely to greenlight a Litecoin ETF before an XRP ETF.
Earlier this month, the SEC reportedly notified at least two of the five prospective issuers that it intended to reject their filings for spot Solana ETFs.
The SEC is widely expected to adopt a more crypto-friendly stance next year after pro-crypto libertarian Paul Atkins was nominated to replace SEC Chair Gary Gensler. However, this does not mean that XRP ETFs will be greenlit shortly after Atkins starts his term, according to Balchunas.
Both XRP and Solana have faced "complex legal issues," so these issues have to be resolved before the SEC will be able to approve spot ETFs.
However, neither Litecoin (LTC) nor Hedera (HBAR) has ever been called a security by the SEC, which makes their path to a spot ETF less complicated, according to Balchunas.
At the same time, the analyst has cautioned that it is unclear whether there is enough investor demand for the ETF products that were recently filed by Canary Capital.
