The PayBito exchange, which processed $1.1 billion worth of trades in 24 hours leading up to the time of publication, will suspend all XRP trading pairs, as announced on Feb.18. Four XRP trading pairs have historically been available on PayBito, with XRP/USDT trades proving the most popular. The exchange is halting trading XRP trading on its platform in the wake of the Security Exchange Commission’s ongoing lawsuit against Ripple Labs.
The trading suspension will not affect users’ holdings.
Notably, the trading suspension will not affect users’ holdings, and those with coins held on the exchange will still be able to transfer them out of the platform. PayBito managing director Raj Chowdhury said, “Our decision for suspending XRP trading will certainly not affect our users’ access to factors like security and compliance, thereby allowing them to transfer XRP’s from their wallets to other exchanges.” The exchange said it would continue to monitor the ongoing legal dispute between the SEC and Ripple Labs, suggesting it could reinstate XRP trading depending on the outcome of the lawsuit.
Ripple continues to face legal troubles.Â
In December 2020, the US SEC filed a lawsuit against Ripple Labs, alleging that XRP coins sale constituted a violation of securities laws. Ripple Labs continues to deny the allegations and has since demanded that the SEC explain why XRP is classed as a security, while Ether isn’t. Officials from the SEC had previously stated publicly that coins like Bitcoin and Ether were sufficiently decentralized so as not to represent security issuances. PayBito has joined a long list of major exchanges that have opted to steer clear from XRP while the lawsuit is underway. Binance.US, eToro, Coinbase, Bittrex, and OKCoin have also halted XRP trading.
