Coinbase’s chief legal officer, Paul Grewal, recently announced that customers in New York can now resume trading XRP on the crypto exchange, marking the end of a nine-month suspension. Grewal shared the update on social media, expressing that XRP trading is once again available in the state. He acknowledged the efforts made in partnership with the State to address the concerns of customers and bring back the service.
After the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a lawsuit against Ripple in 2020, XRP faced significant challenges as it came under scrutiny from both government regulators and centralized exchanges. Several exchanges, including Coinbase, Bittrex, and Binance.US, delisted XRP following the SEC’s allegations that Ripple Labs was selling unregistered securities.
However, these exchanges reversed their decisions and relisted XRP after Judge Analisa Torres ruled that secondary sales of the digital asset did not fall under the category of securities sales. Coinbase gained attention by relisting XRP, with investors and speculators eagerly anticipating the relisting of the token on other major exchanges.
Despite the court’s ruling and the token’s relisting on US platforms, XRP continued to face regulatory obstacles in certain jurisdictions, such as Japan and New York. In September 2023, the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) removed Ripple Labs from its “Greenlist” of approved companies for custodial services, leading Coinbase to halt XRP trading for New York residents.
To act as custodians for customer funds in New York, crypto firms and other entities must individually apply for and receive approval from NYDFS. Failure to do so would result in losing the right to provide asset custodial services within the state.
The news of XRP trading resuming in New York had a positive impact on its price, causing an upward movement from $0.51 to nearly $0.53 at the time of writing. However, XRP has faced a downward trend since reaching its recent high of $0.74 on March 12, 2024.