While the crypto community has been waiting for years, the floodgates have finally opened for crypto ETFs beyond just Bitcoin and Ethereum. September 2025 marked a turning point as the SEC’s new, more permissive generic listing standards allowed a wave of crypto products to hit the market. Finally.
After years of rejections and lawsuits, persistent industry lobbying paid off. Grayscale’s CoinDesk Crypto 5 ETF ($GDLC) and the REX-Osprey XRP ETF ($XRPR) emerged as standout launches. $GDLC converted from an over-the-counter fund to an ETF, immediately accumulating a whopping $915 million in assets. Not too shabby for a day’s work.
The crypto ETF floodgates finally opened, with Grayscale’s $GDLC raking in nearly $1B on day one. Industry persistence paid off.
Meanwhile, $XRPR debuted with $38 million in day-one inflows, setting a 2025 record for ETF debuts. These aren’t your typical one-trick pony funds. $GDLC spreads investments across multiple cryptocurrencies – 70% Bitcoin, 20% Ethereum, and the remainder in XRP, Solana, and Cardano. Bitcoin remains the primary investment due to its historical price gains of over 100 million percent since inception.
$XRPR takes a hybrid approach, holding both direct XRP and XRP-based products under the Investment Company Act of 1940. Both charge a 0.75% expense ratio. Yeah, not exactly cheap. Performance tells an interesting story. $GDLC is up 34.32% year-to-date, outperforming single-asset crypto ETFs.
$XRPR? Down 8.12%. Ouch. Clearly, diversification matters in this volatile market. The floodgates are just beginning to open. There are currently 92 crypto ETFs under SEC review, including 17 Solana-based funds and 15 XRP funds. Some of these filings, including the Grayscale XRP Trust, face important SEC decision deadlines in mid-October 2025.
Products tracking Litecoin, Polkadot, Avalanche, and Cardano are also waiting in the wings. Competition is heating up fast. Grayscale leveraged its brand recognition to quickly capture assets, while REX-Osprey carved out its niche with the first XRP-focused ETF. The Grayscale CoinDesk Crypto 5 ETF stands out with its relatively competitive expense ratio of 0.59% compared to others in the market.
The market’s getting crowded. Fast. Investors finally have options beyond the Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs that dominated headlines earlier. Better late than never.
