As the crypto community gears up in anticipation of altcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) approvals or rejections in 2025, market analysts believe some assets have a higher chance of being greenlit earlier than others.
The Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas tweeted that United States regulatory authorities could approve Litecoin (LTC) and Hedera (HBAR) ETFs before allowing issuers to launch similar products for Ripple (XRP) and Solana (SOL).
Balchunas explained that the market will likely witness the launch of bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) combo ETFs first. These cryptocurrencies have spot ETF markets that have seen billions in cumulative inflows. Hence, Balchunas believes they have a higher chance of making it to listing platforms first because of their pre-existing markets.
The second cryptocurrency with a higher chance of getting ETFs is LTC because it was created as a fork of the Bitcoin network. The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has labeled many altcoins as securities and deemed them subject to appropriate laws over the years. However, LTC has been exempted from this classification.
The same concept applies to HBAR, which has escaped being labeled a security in numerous lawsuits the SEC has dished out to crypto firms over the years. LTC and HBAR are not considered securities, so they are not part of any pending lawsuits between the SEC and crypto firms; hence, they would likely be seen as commodities by the SEC.
Conversely, XRP ETFs appear far-fetched because of an ongoing lawsuit between the SEC and Ripple Labs, the developer behind the XRP Ledger.
Ripple and the SEC have been entangled in a lawsuit since 2020 over XRPs status as a security. Besides that, the cryptocurrency has also been mentioned in other pending lawsuits as a security.
Although a judge ruled last year that XRP can only be classified as a security when sold to institutional investors, another Bloomberg analyst, James Seyffart, mentioned that XRP ETFs would be seriously considered when the complex legal issues surrounding the coin are resolved. According to his ETFs outlook report, this will likely happen when the new SEC administration takes control in 2025.
Meanwhile, a few Solana ETF applications were recently rejected, and analysts linked the development to the coin’s classification as a security.