Brazil's CVM Approves First Spot XRP ETF; XRP Price Surges

Brazil's securities regulator, the Comissão de Valores Mobiliários (CVM), has approved the country's first spot XRP exchange-traded fund (ETF), the Hashdex Nasdaq XRP Index Fund. This approval comes as XRP prices have surged by 8% over the past 24 hours. The fund, managed by Hashdex, is set to trade on Brazil's B3 exchange, although an official start date has yet to be announced.

Hashdex, a prominent crypto ETF provider in Brazil, also offers funds for Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, DeFi, Web3, and the metaverse. Meanwhile, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has acknowledged several spot XRP ETF filings from Nasdaq and Cboe BZX exchanges on behalf of CoinShares, Canary Capital, and WisdomTree. XRP prices reacted to the news with a 7.8% gain, reaching $2.72 at the time of writing, and are now just 20% away from their all-time high.

In parallel, Brazilian bank Braza Group is launching a new stablecoin, BBRL, pegged to the Brazilian real on Ripple's blockchain, XRP Ledger. The stablecoin will be backed by Braza Bank, which specializes in foreign exchange services and international payments. The launch is slated for the first quarter of 2025 and will initially be available to institutional clients before expanding to business-to-consumer customers. Braza Group expects BBRL to capture about 30% of the Brazilian stablecoin market by the end of 2025.

Braza Group is also participating in DREX, a Brazilian central bank blockchain initiative exploring asset tokenization, cross-border payments, and a potential central bank digital currency (CBDC). Brazil's central bank chief, Gabriel Galipolo, recently stated that crypto asset usage in the country has surged over the past few years, with around 90% of the flow linked to stablecoins. He also clarified that DREX is not fundamentally a CBDC but rather an infrastructure aimed at improving credit with collateralized assets.