What Does SEC’s XRP ETF Delay Mean? Legal Expert Spills the Beans

By
Kritika Mehta
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What Does XRP ETF Delay Mean Legal Expert Spills the Beans

What to Know

  • The SEC recently delayed their decision on Franklin Templeton’s spot XRP ETF.
  • The new deadline is set for November 14, 2025.
  • However, lawyer Bill Morgan believes that the agency could be on the verge of approving an XRP ETF.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission again delayed the commencement of a proposed spot XRP exchange-traded fund (ETF). Legal experts believe that it has created the possibility that the regulators are nearly at the point of a final decision regarding the long-contested product.

Legal Expert Weighs in on XRP ETF Approval

Bill Morgan, a pro-XRP lawyer on social media, wrote that the delay was not that long. The Franklin Templeton spot XRP ETF delay is a delay of just 20 days, and people are busy gossiping about delays and SEC. Delay It is but a little delay, Morgan wrote on X. He also wrote that the timing is an indication that the SEC could be coming to the end of its decision on this and other spot XRP ETFs.

On September 10, the agency issued an order indicating that it had established November 14, 2025, as the last date by which to consider the Franklin Templeton application that is being filed under the Cboe BZX Exchange. This filing is covered by BZX Rule 14.11(e)(4), and is the maximum extension that occurs after some proceedings are initiated. In their order, the SEC pointed out that it should either approve or reject the proposal by November 14.

Section 19(b)(2) of the Securities Exchange Act also states that once the SEC commences action on a proposed rule change, also known as a 19b-4 filing, the agency has up to 180 days, with one 60 days extension, to make a decision. The regulators have actually kept the Franklin application on a tight schedule by setting a deadline of November 14, which is essentially the end of all possible extensions that can be made to it.

Key Dates to Monitor

The Franklin case is not the only one that is clogging the SEC calendar with XRP ETFs. Indeed, a series of filings will expire within a narrow three-week period this fall. The XRP Trust of Grayscale, which is registered with NYSE Arca, is the first. Rule 8.201-E has already given the SEC October 18, 2025, as the final day of a possible approval (or rejection) of such application. The 21Shares Core XRP Trust has to be determined as well, just one day later, on October 19, as a previous SEC order says.

The Cboe BZX proposal by Bitwise is due to expire on October 22, and CoinShares XRP ETF and one more Cboe filing by Canary are all due on October 23. The XRP fund of WisdomTree will track the following day, the 24th of October. All this puts Franklin on a tight-fitting schedule (with his November 14 deadline at the far end).

All these issues refer to the ability of the national securities exchanges to modify their regulations to enable the listing and trading of XRP-based commodity trust shares. A 19b-4 filing is approved; however, it is not necessarily a launch. Before their shares can change hands on an exchange, issuers still need to obtain effectiveness of their registration statements, and the SEC has made clear in several previous rulings that effectiveness of registration statements (as opposed to the registration of securities) is required.

The shortened time frame is being compared to the way the SEC handled spot Bitcoin ETFs in the past. After months of artificial delays, in January 2024, the agency coordinated simultaneous approvals by multiple issuers. Whether XRP would follow a similar strategy or not is yet to be seen.

For Morgan, the briefness of the Franklin delay is what matters, as opposed to what many feared in the market. In his interpretation, the SEC’s move is an indication that the process is getting into the last phase and is not being pushed further down the road.

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