A leading U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange has halted all Ripple [XRP] trading on its platform within the wake of the SEC [Securities and Exchange Commission] ongoing lawsuit against Ripple Labs.
The PayBito exchange, which processed $1.1 Bln worth of trades within 24 hours leading up to the time of reporting, will suspend all XRP trading pairs, as revealed on 18th Feb. Four ripple trading pairs have historically been available on PayBito, with XRP/USDT trades to be the foremost popular.
Moreover, the trading suspension won’t affect users’ holdings, and people with coins persisted the exchange will still be able to transfer them out of the platform, added PayBito director Raj Chowdhury:
“Our decision for suspending XRP trading will definitely not affect our users’ access to factors like security and compliance, thereby permitting them to transfer XRP’s from their wallets to other cryptocurrency exchanges.”
PayBito revealed that it might still monitor the continued legal dispute between the SEC and Ripple Labs, suggesting it could reinstate XRP trading counting on the result of the lawsuit
Earlier in December last year, the SEC filed a lawsuit against Ripple Labs, alleging that the sale of XRP coins constituted a violation of securities laws. Ripple Labs continues to deny the allegations and has since demanded that the SEC explain why ripple is classed as a security, while Ethereum [ETH] isn’t. Officials from the SEC had earlier added publicly that coins like Bitcoin [BTC] and Ethereum were sufficiently decentralized, not representing security issuances.
PayBito joins an extended list of leading cryptocurrency exchanges that have opted to steer clear from XRP while the lawsuit is underway. Binance.US, eToro, Coinbase, Bittrex, and OKCoin have all either halted Ripple trading or delisted the coin completely.
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