CoinShares withdraws US spot ETF filings for XRP, Solana and Litecoin ahead of Nasdaq listing

CoinShares, Europe's largest digital asset manager with roughly $10 billion in assets under management, has formally withdrawn its applications for three US spot cryptocurrency ETFs, removing itself from an increasingly crowded market dominated by traditional finance heavyweights.

The firm filed Form RW requests with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Nov. 28 to withdraw registration statements for its proposed XRP ETF, Solana Staking ETF, and Litecoin ETF, according to regulatory filings. Senior financial officer Charles Butler signed each withdrawal letter, which confirmed that no securities had been sold and no transactions had occurred under the earlier S-1 registrations. The firm is also winding down its CoinShares Bitcoin Futures Leveraged ETF. 

The decision comes at a critical moment for CoinShares, which in September announced a $1.2 billion SPAC merger with Nasdaq-listed Vine Hill Capital that would see the company go public in the United States. That deal, expected to close by year-end, positions CoinShares among the top four digital asset managers globally by crypto ETF assets under management, alongside BlackRock, Fidelity, and Grayscale.

CoinShares CEO Jean-Marie Mognetti said in a statement that opportunities for differentiation and sustainable margins in the single-asset crypto ETF space are limited given the dominance of giants like the aforementioned BlackRock, Fidelity, and Grayscale, which manage most of the market's leading funds. CoinShares did not immediately respond to a request for further comment from The Block. 

"Over the next 12-18 months, we aim to bring additional innovative products to the U.S. market across three core categories: crypto equity exposure vehicles that capture the digital asset ecosystem beyond tokens themselves; thematic baskets that provide targeted exposure to specific blockchain innovation trends; and actively managed strategies combining crypto and other assets, leveraging CoinShares quantitative expertise," Mognetti wrote. "To sharpen this focus, we are streamlining our U.S. product lineup by winding down our CoinShares Bitcoin Futures Leveraged (ticker:BTFX) product and redirecting the resources previously allocated to our planned single-asset ETF launches toward higher-margin opportunities."

CoinShares' original Solana Staking ETF filing arrived in June, with amendments submitted through September. The XRP ETF saw updates in August and October, while the Litecoin ETF application dated back to January. The SEC had acknowledged the firm's spot XRP and Litecoin ETF filings in February, as The Block previously reported.

The strategic shift echoes comments from Franklin Templeton's Head of Digital Assets Roger Bayston, who told The Block last week that diversified crypto portfolios represent "the next big thing" following this wave of single-asset funds.