The decision comes during a week when numerous NY-based members of Congress have voted for bills at odds with the SEC.
XRP has a market cap of $29.5 billion, making it the 8th largest cryptocurrency ahead of memecoin DOGE.
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Posted May 23, 2024 at 12:27 pm EST.
Coinbase, the largest centralized exchange in the United States by trading volume, announced Thursday that its users based in the state of New York can start trading XRP, a sign of continued confidence for the exchange in allowing XRP trades.
The announcement, which came at 9:35 a.m. stoked brief volatility for the price of XRP as the cryptocurrency saw an initial jump from 52 cents to almost 55 cents followed by an immediate fall off to 51 cents, data from TradingView shows. The price of XRP has since settled at just under 53 cents.
Coinbase’s decision to enable New York users to trade XRP comes almost one year after the exchange relisted XRP in July 2023 and when U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres ruled in favor of Ripple Labs in its case against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, in which the sale of XRP on exchanges for retail customers did not violate U.S. securities laws.
It also comes one week after New York Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirstin Gilibrand crossed party lines to vote to repeal SAB 121, which was SEC guidance that was unfavorable to the crypto industry, and one day after 14 U.S. House of Representatives from New York voted in favor of a comprehensive crypto bill opposed by SEC chair Gary Gensler known as FIT21, or Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act. Of the 14 representatives that voted “Aye,” nine were Republican and five were Democrat.
Read More: FIT21 Bill Heads to The Senate: Should We Really Be Excited?
“XRP trading on @Coinbase is available again in NY. We heard you and put in the work in strong partnership with the State. And now the word can be put out – we are back up,” wrote Paul Grewal, Coinbase’s chief legal officer, on X.
The SEC had initially suspended its support for XRP trading in Jan. 2021, because of the SEC’s lawsuit against Ripple Labs that alleged Ripple Labs and two of its executives had raised over $1.3 billion in funds through the sale of XRP in an unregistered securities offering.
XRP is the 8th largest cryptocurrency with a market cap of $29.5 billion, ahead of memecoin DOGE.