Beginning with the announcement on 22nd of December from Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse warning of that SEC may be about to go after the company, with SEC soon after announcing a case against Ripple and two executives for sale of illegal security offering in form of XRP crypto with its price consequently tumbling by about 50% days after. Days after, further blows are being thrown at XRP with exchanges suspending trades on the cryptocurrency with latest news of Coinbase suspending the trades of XRP effective on 19th January.
The SEC is after Ripple for reportedly illegal security offering through which it raised $1.38 billion from its investors and traders with Ripple not submitting any documentation for such sales in United States.
Consequently many exchanges operating in the United States appear to be treading with caution and suspending trades of the cryptocurrency to not risk any regulatory scrutiny, notably with Bitstamp, OKCoin and now Coinbase setting out plans to suspend trading of XRP.
The publication from Coinbase highlights that there are no effects on deposits and withdrawals, even after the trading suspension kicks in on 19th January users will be able to withdraw XRPs.
The news from Coinbase has caused a further downslide of 15% within 20 minutes with XRP currently going down to the 24 cents region
With XRP having accumulated a significant crypto market share over the years, it appears as though as every current major drop of XRP causes a significant amount of funds to flow directly into Bitcoin with the Bitcoin Dominance rising notably and spooking other alts.
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