Major cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase will cease trading XRP if the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission takes legal action against Ripple.
According to a blog post published today by Paul Grewal, Coinbase’s chief legal officer, the exchange will completely cease XRP trading starting Jan. 19 at 10:00 a.m. PST. Coinbase made it clear that “trading can be stopped earlier if needed” in order to maintain the exchange’s market health metrics. In addition, the suspension is reportedly not going to affect the Ripple-Backed Flare Network’s upcoming Spark (FLR) token airdrop.
“The suspension of trading will not affect customers’ access to XRP wallets, which will continue to be available for deposit and withdrawal functions after trading is suspended,” said Grewal. “We will continue to support XRP for Coinbase Custody and Coinbase Wallet.”
The US-based exchange is the largest to date to take a position on XRP after it was announced on December 22 that the SEC had launched an “unregistered, ongoing offering of Ripple, CEO Brad Garlinghouse and co-founder Chris Larsen Securities for Digital Assets “. “”
The OKCoin crypto exchange announced today that it will cease XRP trading and deposits from January 4th. Bitstamp announced that it will cease XRP trading for US citizens, while smaller exchanges, including OSL, Beaxy, and CrossTower, announced that they would take similar measures against trading tokens.
Some crypto users assume that other exchanges like dominoes are lined up to delist or suspend trading in XRP after a major player like Coinbase takes a position on the token.
“Soon Kraken, Bittrex, Genesis, Grayscale and other members of the Crypto Rating Council will also delete it,” said Twitter user PratikKala. “Liquidity will run dry and the remaining market makers in Asia will have to leave too.”
Grayscale investments may already have distanced themselves from XRP. According to Twitter user ShardiB2, the company is reportedly terminating subscriptions to its XRP Trust by announcing that it will no longer accept new subscriptions or process outstanding ones. The Grayscale website states, “The Grayscale XRP Trust private placement is currently closed.”
Following Coinbase’s announcement, the price of XRP immediately dropped more than 10%, falling from $ 0.28 to $ 0.25 at the time of publication. This is the latest in a series of bearish moves for the token, which has fallen 44% in price since the SEC’s announcement.
19:05 ET 12/28/20: Updated with more details.
