Kraken has become the latest cryptocurrency exchange to suspend trading on the XRP token in light of the US Securities & Exchange Commission’s enforcement action against Ripple and two of its executives. However, this decision is only limited to trading made by US customers, which will be effective from January 29 onwards. Non-US customers are unaffected and can trade all cryptocurrencies as normal, as well as derivatives of such assets.
The suspension will not affect customers’ access to deposit, hold, and withdraw XRP.
Kraken said the trading suspension would not affect customers’ access to deposit, hold, and withdraw XRP, which will remain available even after trading is halted. The crypto exchange emphasized its latest update. Kraken isn’t the only high-profile crypto exchange to suspend XRP, as other exchanges, including Coinbase, Bitstamp, and OKCoin, have made similar decisions following the SEC’s legal action. XRP price has crashed another five percent today as more crypto exchanges and partners distanced themselves from the fourth-largest crypto asset by market capitalization. SEC filed the lawsuit against Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and Co-founder Chris Larsen, alleging that they raised $1.3 billion via ongoing, unregistered securities offerings since 2013.
Ripple plans to fight the lawsuit and is determined to win.
Though Ripple said it would contest the charges, but the legal battle with the SEC could take years if the blockchain company fights the charge in court. As such, those who keep the token listed on their platforms may be at risk of being sued and fined if the SEC wins its case and the court deems XRP unregistered securities. While the SEC’s lawsuit is a long way from being ruled upon, Kraken was careful about not associating with illegal assets as the exchange holds approval from a state regulator in the US to launch a crypto bank under an SPDI charter.
