The CEX.IO exchange will suspend the trading of XRP for its US clients. A decline in addresses containing large funds in XRP was also reported.
Grayscale, one of the most relevant digital asset management firms in the financial sector, has just joined the long list of companies that turned their backs on Ripple, following the lawsuit that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) from the United States recently filed against them.
Together with more than a dozen exchanges, the exchange house CEX.IO, and several owners simply made the choice and decided to distance themselves from the XRP market.
The news saw the light of day on January 5, after Grayscale executives confirmed that the XRP asset is no longer part of its Large Cap Digital Fund. “This market will no longer have the presence of the Ripple cryptocurrency for commercialization”. Also, the firm added that it has sold all the XRP reserves that were under its power.
Grayscale starts the year with the money obtained from the sale of XRP, and according to a series of tweets Grayscale is buying more bitcoins, ethers, and litecoins. Ripple’s assets represented 1.46% of the total Large Cap Digital Fund, according to national sources.
Although it was not mentioned in the official statement, it seems that the reason why Grayscale decided to suspend its XRP services is because of the SEC lawsuit. Before the litigation began, Grayscale executives confirmed that one of the most important authorized participants of the fund (Genesis Global Trading) decided to suspend all XRP trading.
Less than a month ago, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a lawsuit against Ripple executives on which the SEC accused Ripple of trading unregulated securities.
The authority determined that XRP is a security and not a currency, therefore this product needs registration before the law to be used in the United States; regulation that was not followed.
If the litigation in favor of the SEC ends and XRP is recognized as a security, all those companies that still market this asset could face a fine for violating the country’s financial regulations.
This has caused a rout of companies that have cut their relations with Ripple until news about its use arrives, highlighting among them exchanges of the stature of Bitstamp, Bittrex, Binance, and eToro.
One of the oldest exchanges leaves XRP aside
Although Ripple’s directive describes the SEC’s lawsuit as an attack against the cryptocurrency market, the reality is that more and more companies continue to report that they prefer to disengage from the XRP asset before being on bad terms with the United States government.
Among these cases, the exchange house CEX.IO stands out, one of the oldest exchanges in the market (since 2013). The platform announced this week that it will remove XRP from its list of assets in commercialization for all its clients residing in the United States, taking into account the legal process that the project is in with the US authorities.
By: Jenson Nuñez.
