Late on Thursday, some cryptocurrency market participants got excited to see XRP on Coinbase, which was a surprise as earlier this year, on January 19, Coinbase “fully” suspended trading in XRP.
The San Francisco-based cryptocurrency exchange announced the delisting of XRP back in late December, just like the majority of the trading platforms in the country. The delisting came in the light of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charging Ripple and its two key executives, co-founder Chris Larsen and CEO Brad Garlinghouse, for the sale of $1.3 bln unregistered securities.
But on Sept. 9, some users found XRP markets on the exchange that gave way to speculation that Coinbase has relisted the crypto asset.
$XRP being relisted on @CoinbasePro !! @CredibleCrypto pic.twitter.com/cug3krM2Ib
— crypto katana (@cryptokatana) September 10, 2021
But then, a few hours later, Coinbase put an end to it all, saying it was a technical issue.
“As previously announced, Coinbase has suspended trading in XRP. Due to a technical issue, XRP was temporarily viewable on the Coinbase Pro mobile app for some customers but was not tradeable,” clarified the exchange on Twitter.
Still, this was enough to send the price of XRP soaring from $1.1 to $1.244 but only to drop back to $1.04 a few hours later. As of writing, XRP is trading at $1.10 with a market cap of $51 bln as the 7th largest crypto asset.
While some people were excited about their favorite crypto asset being back on the biggest cryptocurrency exchange in the US, others saw this “issue” as Coinbase striking at the SEC for hindering its plans to launch its new lending product.
Seems like at this point, Coinbase is just itching to get in a fight with the SEC.
Good for them, I’m excited to see them really crush these hall monitors.
— Zzz (@SplitCapital) September 10, 2021
As we reported earlier this week, Coinbase shared that they have received a Wells Notice from the SEC for its Coinbase Lend product that allows its users to earn interest on their crypto holdings, starting with 4% on USDC.
Interestingly, Ripple CEO Garlinghouse tweeted the Die Hard GIF with the text “Welcome to the party, Pal” to Armstrong’s tweet discussing the “really sketchy behavior” from the SEC.
The same day, Garlinghouse released a blog post on the Ripple website titled “The SEC’s Attack on Crypto in the United States.”
Thankfully today many recognize the havoc caused by regulation by enforcement. We’re ready to work with responsible actors, pro-innovation members of Congress, and others in paving a path to clarity and certainty with US regulators. 2/3
— Brad Garlinghouse (@bgarlinghouse) September 8, 2021
“With the latest SEC cryptocurrency regulation tightening its grip on greater investor protection on digital currency, we remain confident after reviewing the SEC’s complaint today that we are on the right side of the law and of history.”
“Nothing will fundamentally alter our trajectory.”
