'We Heard You': Coinbase Resumes XRP Trading in New York

America's biggest crypto exchange Coinbase has reenabled trading of XRP in New York.

The San Francisco-based company's chief legal officer, Paul Grewal, made the announcement today on Twitter (aka X).

Coinbase withdrew XRP trading in 2021 following an lawsuit against Ripple, a fintech company whose founders launched the cryptocurrency. The exchange had reintroduced XRP support in other U.S. states but not New York—which has historically been stricter on the digital asset industry than other parts of the country.

"We heard you and put in the work in strong partnership with the state," Grewal wrote on X. "And now the word can be put out—we are back up."

XRP is the eighth biggest digital asset with a market cap of $29.5 billion, according to CoinGecko. It was created to move money across borders.

But fintech company Ripple, run by the founders of the asset, have been locked in a legal battle with the SEC since 2020. That's when the regulator launched a $1.3 billion lawsuit, alleging that the firm sold unregistered securities in the form of XRP.

Last year, Ripple scored a partial court win against the SEC when a judge ruled that programmatic sales of XRP to retail investors did not qualify as securities.

Despite the judge ruling that $728 million worth of contracts for institutional sales did constitute unregistered securities sales, the news sent shockwaves through the industry.

Wall Street's biggest regulator faces ongoing criticism from politicians and the crypto industry for cracking down unfairly on the digital asset industry.

XRP's price currently stands just above $0.53, effectively flat over the past 24 hours.

Edited by Andrew Hayward