Coinbase Halts XRP Trading, Custody and Wallet Services Not Affected

XRP price fell 8% on Monday after cryptocurrency exchange and brokerage service, Coinbase said it will discontinue XRP trading on January 19. The decision applies only to the retail platform and mobile apps as the crypto unicorn will continue to support XRP on Coinbase Custody and Coinbase Wallet.
This is the latest announcement from a major crypto platform to drop the token listing on the heels of an SEC lawsuit that is pursuing legal action against Ripple and its executives.
Trading XPR on Coinbase platforms, which count 40 million users worldwide and is gearing up for an IPO, will move into limit only starting today, and will be fully suspended on January 19, 2021.
“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. We will provide additional updates, if any, through the Coinbase Support Twitter account, including if there are any changes to timing,” the popular US exchange said.
Coinbase said the trading suspension will not affect customers’ access to XRP wallets which will remain available for deposit and withdraw even after trading is halted, the  San Francisco-based platform emphasized in their latest update.
XRP holders in certain jurisdictions will still be able to benefit from next year’s airdrop, which will give away Spark tokens at a one-to-one ratio against their current holdings.
So far, three major exchanges, namely OKCoin, Bitstamp and Coinbase, as well as crypto and payment provider Simplex have either temporarily suspended XRP trading or removed it entirely.
Soon after SEC announced charges against Ripple, lesser-known crypto platforms such as OSL, CrossTower and Beaxy suspended XRP trading effective immediately and until further notice. Further, crypto fund manager Bitwise liquidated its position in XRP, citing regulatory concerns.
The XRP price has crashed from $0.64 to $0.28 in under a week as traders and investors process the news.
Ripple is developing several blockchain-based solutions that enable  between banks in a faster and cheaper way than the current systems allow.
Some of the top 10 US banks, as well as other big remittance companies, are already using Ripple’s product across their payment services, including MoneyGram, Standard Chartered Bank, American Express and many others.