Crypto exchange Coinbase will suspend XRP trading in response to SEC’s lawsuit against Ripple

Crypto exchange Coinbase announced that it will suspend XRP trading in its platform. The company’s decision came after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission took legal action against Ripple, the blockchain payments firm behind the XRP cryptocurrency.

Coinbase chief legal officer Paul Grewal said that the crypto exchange will fully suspend the trading of XRP on its platform starting January 19, 2021, at 10:00 AM PST, according to Cointelegraph. The suspension will not affect the Spark (FLR) token airdrop on the Ripple-backed Flare Network.

“In light of the SEC’s lawsuit against Ripple Labs, Inc, we have made the decision to suspend the XRP trading pairs on our platform,” Grewal announced in a blog post. “Trading will move into limit only starting December 28, 2020, at 2:30 PM PST, and will be fully suspended on Tuesday, January 19, 2021, at 10 a.m. Pacific Standard Time.”

Coinbase’s legal officer assured that the suspension will not restrict the access of clients to their crypto wallets. “The trading suspension will not affect customers’ access to XRP wallets which will remain available for deposit and withdraw functionality after the trading suspension,” Grewal said. He added that Coinbase “will continue to support XRP on Coinbase Custody and Coinbase Wallet.”

The XRP trading suspension is Coinbase’s response to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s suit against Ripple and two of its officer. On December 22, the SEC filed charges against Ripple, its CEO Brad Garlinghouse, and the company’s co-founder Christian Larse with the federal district court in Manhattan for violating the registration provisions of the Securities Act of 1933.

The SEC alleged that the defendants raised more than $1.3 billion through the sale of the XRP crypto “in an unregistered, ongoing digital asset securities offering.” XRP’s price took a beating since then and is now trading $0.20 per coin, a decrease of around 69 percent from its December 1 price of $0.64, based on data from Coinmarketcap.com.

Coinbase is not the only crypto trading platform that suspended XRP trading on their platforms due to SEC’s lawsuit. For instance, crypto exchange OKCoin also announced the suspension of XRP trading and deposits.

“It is likely that this situation will take time to reach a resolution," OKCoin wrote on a blog post, according to Cointelegraph. "We will proactively inform our customers when we have information that may change our position.”

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