Bitwise has taken another step toward an XRP ETF with a formal Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

On Oct. 2, crypto index fund manager Bitwise submitted a Form S-1 document with the U.S. SEC for an XRP exchange-traded fund, according to the regulator’s official website. A press statement from the company confirmed the filing, and Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley said an XRP ETF would improve opportunity access for more crypto investors.

At Bitwise, we believe blockchains will usher in new, apolitical monetary assets and permissionless applications for the 21st century.

Hunter Horsley, Bitwise CEO

Form S-1 represents the registration of securities with the SEC and is a procedural step before listing any ETF on Wall Street. Approval for Form 19b-4 paperwork, a proposed rule change, is also required. Bitwise’s SEC filing followed the firm’s Delaware Trust registration for an XRP ETF on Oct. 1, as reported by crypto.news.

The firm registered a trust entity in the state of Delaware on Tuesday, which appeared on the state’s Division of Corporations website. Registering a trust entity is a first step toward filing to list and trade shares of an ETF; companies like Bitwise, Blackrock and Fidelity all filed trust entities for bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum’s ether (ETH) ahead of filing for ETFs following those tokens.

Speaking at the European Blockchain Convention, Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan expressed confidence that spot Ethereum ETFs will succeed despite a slow start.

Ethereum (ETH) exchange-traded funds may have launched too early, crypto.news heard Hougan say during an EBC panel on Sept. 25 in Barcelona, Spain. The Bitwise executive noted that Wall Street market players were still acclimatizing to Bitcoin’s (BTC) message, when spot ETH ETFs debuted.

They would have raised five times more assets if we had waited another year. It takes people a long time to digest Bitcoin and be ready for the next thing.

Matt Hougan, Bitwise CIO

ETFs tracking Ether’s spot price launched in late July, over five months after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved similar products backed by Bitcoin in January. Issuers have applied for options on these products, but the SEC has only approved options for BlackRock’s spot BTC ETF. The SEC delayed its verdict for options for spot ETH ETFs till November.

Outflows, mostly from existing Grayscale ETH funds, have hindered spot Ether ETF success, according to some in the market. However, Bitwise’s Hougan offered a different view, suggesting that Ethereum ETFs will inevitably attract traditional finance investors.

It’s a more complex message, and they were still getting their hands around Bitcoin. But it’ll happen. We’ll wake up a year from now, there will be $20 billion in Ethereum ETFs in the U.S., and everyone will say, ‘Wow, I thought they were a bust.’ No, they weren’t bust. These ETFs just take a while.

As of writing, the Ethereum ETF complex has seen over $624 million in net outflows. The group, led by $10 trillion asset management giant BlackRock, held just over $7.2 billion in assets.

Hougan expects improved spot Ether ETF numbers to align with a resurgence in ETH’s narrative. While Bitcoin has thrived under the “digital gold” narrative and Solana has gained attention for its fast transactions, Ethereum has lagged, according to Hougan.

That will end, though. I think the market is coming back around to Ethereum, but it’s taken some time.

Ethereum has grown 14% in the past week and was back above $2,600. Some experts speculate that the second-largest cryptocurrency could experience a bullish fourth quarter, driven by Federal Reserve rate cuts and renewed optimism in the virtual currency market.