Last December 22, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) revealed a lawsuit against Ripple Labs and two of its main leaders for allegedly having made a “$1.3 Billion Unregistered Securities Offering” with XRP. So, they’re considering now this token as a security instead of a currency.
The direst consequences are probably yet to come, but the XRP price has lost around 60% so far, and worse. Several exchanges and crypto-companies have decided to delist this token from their platforms due to the SEC announcement. That’s because the lawsuit may affect external parts in the United States if they’re trading commercially with XRP (declared for now illegal security there).
So, companies like Bitwise, Crypto.com, OSL, CrossTower, Beaxy, Simplex, Bitstamp, and Coinbase have decided to stop the XRP trading in their platforms either for their U.S. customers or for all of them, until further notice.
Considering the delicate situation surrounding Ripple Labs and XRP in the United States, we also have decided to suspend the XRP trading on Alfacash for U.S. residents. Trading will be fully suspended on Monday, January 11, 2021, at 6 a.m. UTC, and until further notice. Meanwhile, the European XRP users (and users from other countries) can still trade with it, since the lawsuit affects only the U.S. jurisdiction.
What’s next for Ripple and XRP?
Is this the end of Ripple and XRP? Probably isn’t. As they have indicated previously, barely 5% of their user base are U.S. residents, and they’re preparing to leave the country if necessary, but not without fighting back.
They commented about it in a recent statement:
“In the meantime, Ripple will continue to operate and support all products and customers in the U.S. and globally. The majority of our customers aren’t in the U.S. and overall XRP volume is largely traded outside of the U.S. There are clear rules of the road for using XRP in the UK, Japan, Switzerland, and Singapore, for example. For eight years, we’ve built products that help hundreds of customers solve pain points around global payments — we will defend our company and look forward to settling this matter in court to finally get clarity for the U.S. crypto industry”.
Besides, the last SEC president, Jay Clayton (known for his skepticism towards the crypto-world), resigned just after signing the lawsuit against Ripple. The vacancy is temporarily inherited by Elad Roisman, who has shown more friendly about cryptocurrencies.
This a huge blow for Ripple and XRP, of course. However, it’s unlikely that one of the most valued cryptocurrencies could be taken down that easily.
Featured Image by Miloslav Hamřík / Pixabay
