Coinbase Relists XRP and Market Reacts Positively with COIN Price up 23%

Key Takeaways

• Coinbase sees XRP win as its own
• Exchange execs and investors may have sold stocks too early
• XRP is getting relisted

Coinbase relisted XRP on its platform for users to trade in, after the token’s creator, Ripple, landed a monumental win against the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Coinbase now has a boost of optimism regarding its litigations with the regulating body.  

The exchange is now seeing significant surges in its stock prices, which is perhaps not the best news for its own executives and investors. 

Commodities, Not Securities

US-based crypto exchange Ripple went through a nearly two-year-long litigation process against the SEC, for allegedly trading in XRP, which the regulator sees as an unregistered security.

On Thursday, July 13th,  U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres announced that Ripple did not violate US securities laws as XRP does not qualify as a security.

Judge Torres’ anchor point on the decision was that the sale of XRP did not guarantee profits for its buyers. On top of that Ripple sold XRP in “blind bid/ask transactions,” which means that buyers didn’t know whether the money was going to Ripple or to a different seller.

Coinbase, along with CEO Brian Armstrong is now celebrating this momentous win as it may play a part in the company’s current SEC troubles. 

In June, the SEC filed a lawsuit against Coinbase, alleging the same thing. The SEC sees that the biggest US-based exchange violated the US securities laws by selling “unregistered securities”.

While the company filed a motion to dismiss the case, the SEC succeeded in keeping the case alive and even started its hearings on Thursday.

Coinbase Execs And Investors Jump The Gun

Despite the ongoing lawsuit filed by the SEC, Coinbase has been on a significant winning streak. The company managed to partner up with Wall Street behemoths who are likely about to take over the crypto market. 

BlackRock, the world’s biggest asset management company, just refiled its Bitcoin spot ETF application with the SEC, naming Coinbase as its surveillance partner.

Following BlackRock’s lead, major financial institutions such as Fidelity and Valkyrie followed suit, also naming Coinbase on their applications.

Coinbase’s involvement with Wall Street caused its stock to hover over $80 per share. Cathie Wood, CEO of ARK Invest was seen selling a large sum of Coinbase stock as soon as prices raised. Brian Armstrong and several Coinbase executives also sold considerable amounts of Coinbase stock following the Wall Street-related surge.

Those moves can now be seen as wrong decisions as Coinbase stock is now over $100 per share following Ripple’s win against the SEC.

This is a sentiment that can be perhaps shared with people who sold XRP tokens shortly before the announcement on Thursday as the token has suddenly surged by over 80% right after Judge Torres’ decision.

Finally, XRP was just removed from Binance, as the exchange is also dealing with a sizeable portion of the SEC’s wrath as is. But, now that XRP received the green light as a non-security, Binance is likely to follow in Coinbase’s footsteps and re-introduce the token to its platform.