On Monday (December 28), crypto exchange OKCoin announced that it would soon be suspending trading and deposits of XRP.

OKCoin’s blog post said:

“We have been closely monitoring the news surrounding the December 22nd SEC lawsuit against Ripple, the company behind XRP, and two of its key executives. As the lawsuit proceedings take place, we have determined it is the best course of action to suspend XRP trading and deposits on OKCoin effective January 4, 2021.“

There are two deadlines:

  • 19:00 PST on 3 January 2021: “Users who have borrowed from the XRP / USD margin pair (incl. Borrowing XRP and USD) are required to return the borrowed value before this time. Delays will trigger a liquidation by our systems to close the loan contracts.”
  • 19:00 PST on 4 Jan 2021: “spot trading, margin trading, and deposits will be suspended till further notice.”

ON December 22, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that it had “filed an action against Ripple Labs Inc. and two of its executives, who are also significant security holders, alleging that they raised over $1.3 billion through an unregistered, ongoing digital asset securities offering.”

Since then, several companies have halted support for XRP:

As for Coinbase, according to a report by Forbes on December 23, the exchange is currently “considering [its] options.”

It would not be surprising to see other major crypto exchanges that serve U.S. customers — such as Binance.US, Bittrex, Coinbase, and Kraken — announce in the near future similar suspensions while the SEC is alleging that XRP is a security in order to avoid getting into legal trouble.

According to data by TradingView, currently (as of 21:42 UTC on December 28), on Coinbase, XRP is trading at $0.2794, down only 1.02% in the past 24-hour period.

Coinbase:XRPUSD Chart by TradingView

Featured Image by “vjkombajn” via Pixabay.com

The views and opinions expressed by the author are for informational purposes only and do not constitute financial, investment, or other advice.