The race to launch another crypto-based exchange-traded fund in the US continues in full force and XRP has reached another milestone as Bitwises filing has been officially acknowledged by the SEC.

The 19b-4 filing, published in the Federal Register, means that the agencys approval process has begun, while the interested parties have 21 days to send their comments.

Following that deadline, the US regulator has the right to approve, disapprove, or institute proceedings. Recall that the SEC previously acknowledged XRP ETF filings from Grayscale and 21Shares, while those from Canary Capital and WisdomTree are still pending.

Unlike the acknowledgment of 21Shares XRP ETF application, which caused an immediate uproar for the underlying asset, this time, the cryptocurrency failed to produce any substantial gains in the first hours after the news broke.

XRP, alongside most of the market, is deep in the red today, dropping by over 5% on a 24-hour scale to under $2.5.

Despite these acknowledgments from the US SEC, the agency is still engaged in a legal battle against Ripple. Experts believe the lawsuit needs to be concluded first before a potential approval of an XRP ETF.

Additionally, Bloombergs ETF experts, James Seyffart and Eric Balchunas, recently asserted that XRP is not the leader in terms of which crypto asset is next in line after BTC and ETH to have its own exchange-traded fund. The duo placed Litecoin as well as Dogecoin ahead of it.

Nevertheless, Ripples CEO, Brad Garlinghouse, remains an optimist as he has asserted multiple times that an XRP ETF is inevitable.