BlackRock's fake XRP ETF document leaked, XRP briefly surged 15% before falling back to square one

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BlackRock's Fake XRP ETF Filing Leaked

According to The Block, the fake filing was initially discovered by Twitter user @SummersThings.

The leaked document on the early morning of 11/14 indicated that an Ishares XRP Trust initiated by BlackRock had applied for registration following the procedures of a Delaware company.

This can't be real. Ishares XRP Trust registered in Delaware? pic.twitter.com/pA3PX7i8Wu

— Summers (@SummersThings) November 13, 2023

BlackRock Clarifies: Unrelated to the Company

A BlackRock spokesperson promptly confirmed to major media outlets that the document was unrelated to BlackRock.

Previously, when BlackRock applied for Bitcoin and Ethereum spot ETFs, it also used a Delaware company as the vehicle and submitted the application. It appears that this document deliberately imitated BlackRock's previous registration documents.

XRP Surges by 15% Briefly

According to CoinMarketCap, XRP surged to $0.75, up 15.42%, at 4 a.m., only to drop to $0.66 within an hour, still leaving a 1.97% increase.

Increase in Fake Bullish News

CoinDesk pointed out that this is not the first time Delaware company registration procedures have been abused. In 2021, there were fake filings suggesting that Grayscale would launch trusts for Nahmii and Theta.

Additionally, in September 2021, individuals used the news release service GlobeNewswire to publish a fake press release stating "Walmart to accept Litecoin payments," which was reported by major media outlets such as Reuters, and the Litecoin Foundation also retweeted the news.

This made the fake news seem too real. Later, it was discovered that the registration email for the press release had only been registered a month prior. Various media outlets began to expose this as fake news and deleted the original pages. The Litecoin Foundation also issued a statement to clarify.

Litecoin fluctuated by over 30% due to fake news, with both official sources and many media outlets falling for it

The founder of Litecoin personally clarified the whole incident, admitting: "We really messed up this time"