XRP Tanks 10% to $0.30 After Bitstamp Suspends Trading

Just a day after rallying nearly 37% on Christmas day, Ripple’s XRP is again showing bearish momentum. At press time, the XRP price is down 10% trading at $0.30 with a market cap of 14 billion. The cryptocurrency is down nearly 20% from its $0.37 peak on December 24.

The latest price crash comes after one of the biggest crypto exchanges Bitstamp suspended trading and deposits for U.S. customers of XRP on Friday, December 25. The official announcement from Bitstamp reads:

“In light of the recent SEC filing against Ripple Labs Inc., which alleges that XRP is a security, we are going to halt all trading and deposits of XRP for our US customers on 8 January 2021 at 9 PM UTC. We will closely follow the unfolding situation and continue to adapt accordingly”.

This decision comes after the U.S. SEC slapped a $1.3 billion lawsuit on the San Francisco-based blockchain startup. In the last seven days, XRP has corrected more than 50% hitting a low of $0.23.

Ripple Partners Start Taking A Stand

While Ripple has been defending its stand that XRP is a ‘currency’ and not a ‘security’, its partners have also started reconsidering their relations with Ripple. Ripple’s strong partner and Japanese banking giant SBI Holdings has come out in support of the company. The banking giant said that 90% of its customers and 80% of remittance volumes comes outside the jurisdiction of the US.

On the other hand, Ripple’s other partner MoneyGram has been distancing itself from the company. The international payments platform noted that it has never used Ripple’s on-demand liquidity service XRP tokens or RippleNet for that sake to make any cross-border payments.

“MoneyGram does not utilize the ODL platform or RippleNet for direct transfers of consumer funds – digital or otherwise. Furthermore, MoneyGram is not a party to the SEC action,” the statement read.

MoneyGram also added that it hasn’t received any intimidation from Ripple regarding the lawsuit. It added that there’s no negative impact on its commercial agreement with Ripple. However, it will continue to monitor further developments as the lawsuit evolves. The Ripple vs SEC battle has just begun!