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A market pundit has suggested that it’s interesting that Franklin Templeton sees XRP as foundational to global settlement, but not because of the potential price impact.
This statement came from Tyler Hill, co-founder and CEO of Fluence, amid an impressive rise in institutional interest in XRP over the past few months. For context, Franklin Templeton, the $1.6 trillion asset manager, praised XRP following the launch of their Franklin XRP ETF (XRPZ) on Nov. 24, the fourth pure spot XRP ETF to launch last month.
In the announcement, Franklin Templeton praised XRP for facilitating the seamless movement of money across borders quickly and at a low cost, further calling attention to XRP’s long track record in digital payments.
Franklin Calls XRP Foundation to Global Settlements
David Mann, Head of ETF Product and Capital Markets at Franklin Templeton, also emphasized that XRPZ gives investors a straightforward and regulated way to invest in an asset that “plays a foundational role in global settlement infrastructure,” while maintaining the transparency and oversight expected from an ETF.
Since launch, XRPZ has attracted $132.3 million in net inflows, contributing to the $887 million netflows recorded by the four XRP ETFs in the market as of press time. While many analysts remain bullish on the potential price impact of the capital flows from XRPZ and the other ETFs, Tyler Hill is more interested in what these recent developments mean for XRP.
Notably, for an asset that faced a series of delistings in December 2020 and January 2021 due to the SEC’s lawsuit against Ripple, XRP has come a long way in terms of institutional adoption. Throughout its four-year legal battle with the SEC, most institutions avoided XRP, choosing not to build any products around it for fear of regulatory repercussions.
Now, Franklin Templeton, one of the largest asset managers globally, has not just launched a financial wrapper around XRP, but is shilling the crypto asset as “foundational” to global payments. Tyler Hill believes this is especially noteworthy.
XRP Witnessing Growing Institutional Interest
According to him, this development shows that large institutions appear to be quietly rebuilding their exposure to digital assets that sit at the infrastructure layer of global finance. For context, these projects, such as XRP, support payment rails, settlement systems, and cross-border movement of value.
Besides Franklin Templeton, other financial institutions like Bitwise, Grayscale, and Canary Capital have also launched XRP ETFs, confirming the trend highlighted by Hill. Meanwhile, financial bodies such as the Institute of International Finance (IIF), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the US Faster Payments Council (FPC) have touted XRP’s ability to facilitate seamless cross-border payments.
In addition, some firms have taken to launching corporate XRP treasuries amid the rise in global institutional adoption. For instance, in June, Webus International filed with the U.S. SEC to launch a $300 million XRP treasury. Reliance Group, Trident Digital, VivoPower, and Evernorth have also expressed interest in launching XRP treasuries.