US-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has announced that it will suspend the trading of XRP.

The decision came against the backdrop of a lawsuit filed by the US Securities and Exchange Commission “SEC” that blocked Ripple and its executives, accusing them of selling $1.3 billion in an unregistered manner.

Coinbase’s announcement regarding the suspension of Ripple trading came as follows:

Due to the SEC’s recent action against Ripple, all XRP trading has been set to a minimum, and we plan to completely suspend XRP trading starting Tuesday, January 19, 2021, at 10 AM PT.

After that, users will continue to retain access to their XRP cryptocurrency.

The price of XRP has fallen by 50% since the Securities and Exchange Commission announced the lawsuit.

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To decrease the value of the currency further after the news of Coinbase, by 18%, and the price of the coin reached 0.23 dollars.

Coinbase has joined the growing list of trading platforms that have suspended XRP trading, including Bitstamp, Beaxy, CrossTower, OKCoin and OSL.

XRP is still open for trading on Binance, Kraken, and Huobi.

Since the news of the lawsuit filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission against Ripple emerged, many investment funds have stopped trading Ripple, among the most prominent of these funds:

Jump Trading and Galaxy Digital.

As a reminder, the SEC’s lawsuit against Ripple alleges that Ripple has raised $1.3 billion in XRP through sales of unregistered securities since 2013, and continues to do so.

Ripple has 55 billion XRP in escrow wallets, which it offers to sell many times to keep the XRP price constant.

The lawsuit lists Ripple co-founder Christian Larsen and CEO Brad Garlinghouse as defendants.

The Securities and Exchange Commission argues in its filing that they incited Ripple’s abuse.

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse refuted the allegations, saying in a previous statement:

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The Securities and Exchange Commission is fundamentally wrong in terms of law and reality.

Garlinghouse told Garlinghouse that XRP is a currency and not an investment contract, so Ripple does not have to register with the SEC before selling XRP.

Ripple has pledged to win the lawsuit, and its statement read:

We are right and we will fight hard – and win – this battle in the courts to get clear rules for the entire industry in the USA.

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