Delaware Department of Justice May Investigate Fake BlackRock XRP ETF Filing

According to CoinDesk, Delaware's Department of Justice may be investigating a fake filing that suggested asset management giant BlackRock was preparing to launch a spot XRP exchange-traded fund (ETF). The filing, which was still visible on the Delaware Department of State's Division of Corporations website as of Tuesday afternoon, closely resembles last week's legitimate paperwork from BlackRock regarding its iShares Ethereum Trust product. That filing appeared just hours before the company submitted an application to U.S regulators for a spot ether ETF. The fake XRP filing briefly sent the token's value up by more than 10% before a BlackRock spokesperson confirmed to CoinDesk that the company was not attempting to launch such a fund. A spokesperson for the Delaware Department of State informed CoinDesk on Tuesday that the matter had been referred to the state's Department of Justice. The Department of Justice spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Questions have arisen about the ease of filing for a Trust under a false name and entity and the verification process behind it. According to the Delaware website, there are seven steps required to form a new business entity, all of which can be completed by filling out interactive PDF forms on the website. The most crucial requirement appears to be obtaining a registered agent in the State of Delaware, which can be either a resident or a business entity legally allowed to conduct business in the state. However, if only the name and address are required, it could be easily copied from another filing. In this case, the imposter seemed to do little more than copy and paste the registered agent, Daniel Schwieger, a managing director at BlackRock according to his LinkedIn profile, from the legitimate filing.