Coinbase, the popular cryptocurrency exchange, has announced that it has resumed trading of XRP in New York. This move comes after a nine-month suspension of XRP trading due to regulatory issues.
The Chief Legal Officer of Coinbase, Paul Grewal, shared the news on the platform, stating that XRP trading on Coinbase is now live again in New York.
The suspension of XRP trading on Coinbase began in January of this year following a lawsuit filed by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) against Ripple Labs, the company behind XRP. The SEC alleged that Ripple Labs had been selling XRP tokens as securities without proper registration.
This lawsuit resulted in the delisting of XRP from various exchanges, including Coinbase. These exchanges were prohibited from trading or converting XRP into any fiat currency. However, customers were still able to deposit, store, and transfer the token during this suspension period.
Coinbase has now restored XRP trading for its New York clients after obtaining regulatory clearance from the state. This was made possible by a court ruling in 2023 by Judge Analisa Torres, who determined that secondary sales of XRP did not qualify as trading securities. This decision prompted exchanges to relist the digital asset.
Coinbase was one of the first exchanges to relist XRP, which attracted the attention of investors and speculators. However, regulatory hurdles remained in certain jurisdictions, including New York, even after the court ruling.
In September 2023, the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) removed Ripple Labs from its list of authorized companies, preventing them from holding customer assets. This action led to Coinbase suspending XRP trading in New York for the past nine months.
Following the recent announcement, Coinbase customers in New York can now engage in various XRP transactions, including buying, selling, exchanging, transmitting, accepting, and storing the cryptocurrency through Coinbase’s website and mobile apps. In response to this news, the price of XRP experienced a slight increase from $0.51 to nearly $0.53.
Currently, XRP is trading at $0.519, experiencing a 1.76% decline in the last 24 hours, according to Coinmarketcap. Ripple Labs currently holds 46.5% of the total supply of XRP, with 5,258,162,324 XRP in their possession and 41.3 billion XRP locked in escrow.
Source: Cryptopolitan, reported by Lawrence Damilola
