The last couple of days have been tremendously beneficial for the crypto-verse. However, it turns out, XRP was the only asset that encountered a major impediment while all the other coins were tapping new highs. Bitcoin proved to be unfettered as the king coins price soared up to a high of $28,288, just yesterday. Ethereum [ETH], Binance Coin [BNB], and several other assets were also seen following the footsteps of Bitcoin. XRP was still dealing with the repercussions of its tiff with the Securities and Exchange Commission [SEC] of the United States. As Bitstamp, went ahead and halted trading of XRP, various other prominent crypto exchanges were seen the following suit.
XRP Temporarily Loses Spot In OKCoin and Coinbase
The SEC went on to slap Ripple with a lawsuit for engaging in the sale of unregistered securities which was touted as illegal by the financial regulator. This time the SEC went big and called out Ripple Labs for acquiring over $1.3 billion in the sale of unregistered securities. This lawsuit posed to be immensely detrimental for XRP as several exchanges decided to temporarily pull the plug on the asset. Bitstamp was one of the first exchanges to go about it while Coinbase and other exchanges were still processing the entire situation.
However, it seems like crypto exchanges have been jumping onto the bandwagon as OKCoin as well as Coinbase revealed that they would temporarily suspend trading of XRP. In a recent blog post, OKCoin affirmed that it would put a hold on trading and deposits of XRP starting from 4 January 2021. The platform announced that it intended to steer clear of XRP trading until the situation reached a judgment.
Coinbase took to Twitter and revealed that it would stop XRP trading from 19 January 2021. The tweet read,
Given the SEC’s recent action against Ripple, all XRP books have been moved to limit only and Coinbase plans to fully suspend trading in XRP on Tuesday, January 19, 2021, at 10 AM PST. Afterwards, users will continue to retain access to their XRP funds. https://t.co/izreZvgHNl
— Coinbase (@coinbase) December 28, 2020
The exchange, however, clarified that it would continue aiding XRP on the Coinbase Wallet as well as Coinbase Custody.
The SEC hasn’t been kind to anyone in terms of innovation, especially the crypto-verse. Time and again, the crypto industry had been hit by the SEC with several regulations that weren’t quite friendly to the cryptocurrency market. Alarmed by the lack of regulatory climate and inclination towards cryptocurrencies, several platforms including Ripple were considering closing shops in the country. Just last month, Brad Garlinghouse along with the former CEO of Ripple, Chris Larsen revealed that the limitations that the regulators have been imposing on the crypto-verse have made it rather difficult for platforms to function in the country.