Coinbase Drops XRP (Ripple) Cryptocurrency On January 19

The SEC announced a lawsuit against Ripple Labs, Inc, and as such, XRP trading pairs are going offline on Coinbase. If any of that made any sense to you whatsoever, you probably know about cryptocurrency and quite possibly have some investment made in XRP. If you're using XRP on Coinbase right now, you'll want to finish up any sort of transactions you've got going before Tuesday, January 19, 2021 at 10AM Pacific Standard Time if you want those transactions to be fulfilled.

Trading was moved to limit only for XRP on Coinbase on December 28, 2020 at 2:30 PM PST. On Tuesday January 19, XRP trading will be fully suspended on the Coinbase platform. If you have XRP in a wallet on Coinbase, you'll still be able to withdraw and deposit after the trading suspension is in play.

A previously announced Spark airdrop appears to still be ready to roll, too. If you qualified for said airdrop, Coinbase Custody and Coinbase Wallet will "continue to support XRP" for said drop. That's all subject to approval in whatever jurisdiction in which the transaction would take place, of course.

As the official post on Coinbase suggests, all XRP holding, trading, and airdrop business is subject to change in the next few weeks. They've suggested that trading may be "halted earlier as needed to maintain [Coinbase] market health metrics."

The SEC charged Ripple and two executives of conducting a $1.3 billion unregistered securities offering on December 22, 2020. As suggested in the suit announcement: "Issuers seeking the benefits of a public offering, including access to retail investors, broad distribution and a secondary trading market, must comply with the federal securities laws that require registration of offerings unless an exemption from registration applies," said Director of the SEC's Enforcement Division Stephanie Avakian.