Bitcoin Daily: Three Crypto Firms Delist XRP; Bitcoin Hits New Record High Above $28,000

Binance, Bittrex and Crypto.com have all announced that they will delist XRP following last week’s news that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed a lawsuit against Ripple for trading the cryptocurrency without registering it as a security.

Binance said in a blog post that it will suspend XRP trading on Jan. 13, and it noted that while customers won’t be able to deposit XRP, they will be able to withdraw it.

Bittrex will remove the currency on Jan. 15, according to its company blog post, and Crypto.com, in its announcement, said it will suspend XRP trading and deposits on Jan. 19.

Several other crypto exchanges, including Coinbase, OKCoin and Digital Asset Platform OSL, have all also recently delisted XRP following the news of the lawsuit, the crux of which depends on whether XRP is a security — and thus regulated by the SEC — or a currency.

Ripple maintains “XRP is a currency, as the DOJ and FinCEN determined in 2015.”

In other news, bitcoin hit a new high on Wednesday (Dec. 30), continuing its months-long record-breaking price rally.

As of 3:19 p.m. Eastern time, the price sat at $28,777.71, just two weeks after breaking the $20,000 mark for the first time in its history.

Investors say this price rally is different than the one in 2017 and is here to stay, frequently citing cryptocurrency’s increased mainstream presence, such as PayPal’s recent move to allow its users to deposit and pay with cryptocurrencies.

“PayPal has basically just said, ‘Hey, we’re going to open this up to everybody,’” Daniel Gouldman, CEO of Ternio, which has partnered with PayPal, said in an interview with PYMNTS. “Bitcoin is like a [crypto] 101 version. It’s made for Grandma, so no one — my kid, Grandma — can mess it up with PayPal.”

Reuters reported that bitcoin’s limited supply — specifically that the creation of new coins relies on so-called “mining” computers — has been part of the power behind its current price climb.

“The supply side to the bitcoin market will remain tight,” Jacob Skaaning of crypto hedge fund ARK36 told Reuters.