XRP price soars after Coinbase opens up trading in New York

By Rebecca Campbell

Fans of Ripple and XRP are seemingly thrilled by the news that Coinbase has finally opened up trading for the altcoin in New York.

Following a tweet yesterday from the San Francisco-based cryptocurrency exchange announcing the move, the price of XRP has risen to $0.403, an increase of of nearly 24 percent, according to CoinMarketCap. Notably, a surge in the market can also be seen across the board, with Bitcoin leading the way, following BTC's jump to over $8,000 in the last 24 hours.

Last February, Coinbase made the decision to list XRP on its Coinbase Pro platform. Since then, the exchange has added support for XRP for its retail platform, but excluded residents in the UK and New York from access.

Now, those in the Big Apple can buy, sell, convert, send, receive, or store XRP on the platform’s website. They can also use the exchange’s iOS and Android apps to trade XRP.

And with New Yorkers finally joining the party, it appears the market is responding. But while the bull run may spell good news for crypto generally, it hasn’t all been plain sailing for Coinbaise and its listing of XRP, which was previously marred by allegations of insider trading.

After the exchange’s original announcement in February, Crypto Twitter descended upon Coinbase with allegations that its employees were able to buy XRP on the cheap before its listing—allegations which Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong brushed aside with a since deleted laugh-cry emoji.

But it wasn’t the first time such accusations had been levied at Coinbase.

After the exchange’s listing of Bitcoin Cash, Coinbase employees were similarly accused of insider trading. At the time, Coinbase conducted an investigation of its employees and found no evidence of any wrongdoing.

Nevertheless, such talk hasn’t hurt Coinbase’s popularity, and the platform continues to grow.

Earlier this month, Coinbase announced that it now supports more than 30 assets on its Custody platform—20 of which were added within the first few months of 2019.

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