Grayscale Investments Terminates XRP Trust Citing Impact of SEC Lawsuit Against Ripple

Grayscale Investments is shutting down its Grayscale XRP Trust and liquidating its XRP holdings in order to distribute cash proceeds to the trust’s shareholders. The firm cited difficulty in converting XRP into U.S. dollars following the lawsuit filed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) against Ripple.

Grayscale Axes XRP Trust

Grayscale Investments announced Wednesday that it is commencing the “dissolution of Grayscale XRP Trust.”

The company detailed that on Dec. 22, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) decided “to file a federal court action against certain third parties asserting that XRP is a ‘security’ under federal securities law.” It added:

In response to the SEC’s action, certain significant market participants have announced measures, including the delisting of XRP from major digital asset trading platforms.

This has resulted in Grayscale’s “conclusion that it is likely to be increasingly difficult for U.S. investors, including the [Grayscale XRP] Trust, to convert XRP into U.S. dollars, and therefore continue the trust’s operations.”

Grayscale further explained that it “has liquidated the trust’s XRP and intends to distribute the net cash proceeds to trust shareholders, after deducting expenses and providing appropriate reserves and subject to any applicable withholding.”

The company emphasized:

The trust will terminate following distribution of the net cash proceeds.

After removing the XRP Trust, Grayscale now offers nine crypto investment products: the bitcoin trust, bitcoin cash trust, ethereum trust, ethereum classic trust, horizen trust, litecoin trust, stellar lumens trust, zcash trust, and the digital large-cap fund. On Jan. 13, the total assets under management across its crypto products total $24.7 billion.

Do you think Grayscale did the right thing in closing down its XRP product? Let us know in the comments section below.