In January 2021, Coinbase Pro de-listed XRP over fears of a regulatory crackdown on the currency. However, several users of the crypto exchange have recently noticed that the coin appeared to be re-listed. However, the excitement was short-lived as Coinbase Pro quickly denied having any listing of XRP on their exchange.
Following the reports of its re-listing, XRP experienced significant spikes but crashed soon after the excitement was over. At the time of writing, XRP is trading at $1.11, the coin fell by 13% in one week.
The news of XRP’s re-listing on Coinbase Pro was widely shared on Twitter by excited investors who had noticed that certain trading pairs were available on the trading platform. Investors noticed that XRP/USD, XRP/EUR, XRP/GBP, and XRP/BTC were all available to trade.
Many of these investors acted on the news, sharing their trade setups to take advantage of the potential surge in the coin. Unfortunately for many of these traders, the re-listing was a false alarm.
Not long after the news was spreading around Twitter, Coinbase made their own statement, saying that XRP became viewable but not tradeable. This was apparently due to 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.”
Before the exchange made their statement, several traders had their own theories that the re-lisitng was a way for Coinnbase to troll the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), following the regulators threat to sue Coinbase over future lending plans.
Many members of the crypto community speculate that the exchange is willing to spat with the regulators over decisions that have been made.
Coinbase’s feud with SEC
There has been a clash between the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Coinbase for some time now, after SEC issued plans to regulate the exchanges future lending plans.
The lending plan in question is a yield-generating product called ‘Lend’ . The exchange wants to use Lend to compete with other decentralised products, such as Compound and Aave, and will operate a lending pool focussed on USD Coin.
According to Brian Armstrong, when the exchange reached out to SEC regarding the regulations, “They responded by telling us this lend feature is a security.” Adding, “They refuse to tell us why they think it’s a security, and instead subpoena a bunch of records from us (we comply), demand testimony from our employees (we comply), and then tell us they will be suing us if we proceed to launch, with zero explanation as to why.”
Coinbase has been working closely with the SEC for six months as the company believes in the value of “open and substantive dialogue” with regulators. According to the exchange, Lend does not qualify as a security as it is not an investment contract or a note. Despite sharing this view with the SEC, it seems that the regulators remain firmly against Coinbase’s new lending initiative.
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