Startup Founded by Citi Alumni to Launch XRP-Backed Securities

Receipts Depositary Corp. (RDC), a start-up founded by a group of former Citigroup executives, is planning to launch XRP-backed securities, according to people familiar with the matter.

This will give institutions access to XRP (XRP) securities through U.S. regulated market infrastructure.

The company will offer depositary receipts similar to the American depositary receipts (ADRs) that represent foreign stocks on U.S. equity exchanges.

The product will be offered to qualified institutional buyers only via transactions exempt from registration under the Securities Act of 1933. As such, it does not need approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Fox Business reported the news earlier Friday.

The securities will be cleared by the Depository Trust Company (DTC), similar to RDC’s already existing offerings of bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) backed securities.

In a press release in January 2024, RDC founder and CEO Ankit Mehta, said that using depositary receipts brings many benefits, such as their “tried and true structure, providing direct ownership of the underlying asset and easy inclusion in institutional products.”

Several companies have taken steps to bring XRP to an institutional crowd as the native cryptocurrency of the Ripple network has seen tremendous growth over the past year. Several asset managers and exchange-traded fund (ETF) providers have applied for ETFs tracking the price of XRP.

The difference between an ETF and depository receipts is that while shares in a potential XRP ETF would be redeemed for cash, depositary receipts would offer direct ownership of the cryptocurrency.