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- The XRP cryptocurrency fell as much as 31% on Tuesday after trading platform Coinbase said it would halt trading by mid-January.
- Last week, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed a lawsuit against blockchain company Ripple over how it sells XRP.
- XRP lost about three-quarters of its value within six weeks.
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Cryptocurrency XRP fell 31% on Tuesday after trading platform Coinbase said it would suspend its digital token by mid-January. This followed a complaint from the US financial market regulator against XRP’s developer, Ripple Labs.
XRP fell 28% on the day to around $ 0.2018, after falling to a low of $ 0.2011 earlier in the day. XRP has lost about 75% in value since reaching a two-year high in early November, when investors took advantage of a weaker U.S. dollar to pile up in cryptocurrencies.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said Wednesday that Ripple had an unregistered $ 1.3 billion offer with its sales of XRP, which the regulator sees as a security and not as a cryptocurrency.
“In light of the SEC lawsuit against Ripple Labs, Inc., we have decided to suspend the XRP trading pairs on our platform,” Coinbase said in a statement late Monday.
“Trading will only begin on December 28, 2020 at 14:30 PST, and will be suspended on Tuesday, January 19, 2021 at 10:00 Pacific Standard Time,” the company said.
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Coinbase added that the suspension of trade will not affect customers’ access to XRP wallets and that it will remain available for deposits and withdrawals.
Ripple CEO and co-founder Bradley Garlinghouse, mentioned in the SEC case, said on the company’s blog last week that the regulator did not provide clarity on whether its XRP token as a currency or a security should not be classified.
Ripple was not immediately available for comment when Business Insider contacted him.