In brief
- Binance.US has announced that it will suspend trading of XRP from January 13.
- The move follows the SEC's $1.3 billion lawsuit against Ripple for unregistered securities sales of XRP.
- XRP's price has plummeted since the lawsuit, as exchanges including Coinbase and Bitstamp have suspended trading of the cryptocurrency.
Binance.US has become the latest exchange to suspend trading of the XRP cryptocurrency, in the wake of the SEC's lawsuit against Ripple Labs.
The exchange announced that from 10am EST on Wednesday, January 13, 2021, XRP will be delisted from Binance.US, with trading and deposits suspended.
XRP holders will still be able to withdraw their holdings from the exchange, and the delisting won't affect users from claiming Spark (FLR) tokens from Flare Network's airdrop to XRP holders.
The move follows the US Securities and Exchange Commission's suit against Ripple Labs, which alleges that Ripple raised $1.3 billion in XRP through unregistered securities sales since 2013.
SEC charges Ripple and two executives with conducting $1.3 billion unregistered securities offering https://t.co/3VP23RpSyV
— SEC_News (@SEC_News) December 22, 2020
The suit also names Ripple's co-founder Christian Larsen and CEO Brad Garlinghouse as defendants. Ripple has vowed to "aggressively fight" the lawsuit, while Garlinghouse has refuted the accusations, claiming that the SEC is "fundamentally wrong as a matter of law and fact."
XRP's price plunge
XRP's market cap has collapsed following the SEC lawsuit, as crypto exchanges including Coinbase, Bitstamp and OKCoin have scrambled to suspend trading of the token for US customers.
The price of XRP currently stands at just $0.22, a precipitous descent from the highs of $0.69 seen during the early stages of Bitcoin's 2020 bull run. Earlier this week it dropped as low as $0.17 on some exchanges; at present, it's down over 63% on the previous month.