u.today
MicroStrategy Founder and Chairman Michael Saylor has taken a direct jab at Ethereum (ETH) and other top altcoins on the market. Speaking at the firm’s Bitcoin for Corporation event, Saylor predicted that a spot Ethereum ETF will not be approved this summer.
Ethereum, XRP and ADA are securities
Michael Saylor became a strong Bitcoin advocate when he made his first acquisition in August 2020. Since then, he joined the elite group of Bitcoin maxis who believe any other digital currency is inferior in tech and decentralization.
He said that when the spot Ethereum ETF is denied, it will be clear to everyone that ETH is not a commodity. By extension, he called out Binance Coin (BNB), Solana (SOL), XRP, Cardano (ADA) and everything down the stack as just unregistered crypto asset securities.
This is a rather polarizing statement that is generating a buzz on the market, as some of these coins have been labeled securities in lawsuits brought on by the U.S. SEC against Binance and Coinbase exchanges. While the status of the majority of the coins is yet to be determined by a court, XRP does not fit in the stack.
This is because Judge Analisa Torres declared in her judgment in the Ripple versus SEC case last year that XRP in itself is not an investment contract.
Altcoin ETF prospects
Michael Saylor did not mince words when he said none of the security-labeled altcoins will ever get to be wrapped by a spot Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) product. He also predicted that none of them will be accepted by Wall Street the way Morgan Stanley, BNP Paribas and others are betting on spot Bitcoin ETFs.
The fate of the Ethereum ETF is uncertain at this time, and this complicates the optimism for alternative ETF products involving XRP and other assets in the long term.