Coinbase cryptocurrency exchange will soon start trading XRP despite the uncertainty with regulation.
On Monday, the exchange announced that it would add XRP to the listing on its Coinbase Pro trading platform in “for translation only” mode. This means that buyers so far can only deposit cryptocurrency on the platform. At least 12 hours after that, the company plans to activate other trade services. At the time of publication, trading pairs with XRP are already present on the site, but trading on them has not yet begun.
Coinbase Pro customers in the United States (excluding New York State), the UK, some EU countries, Canada, Singapore, and Australia will initially be able to access XRP, with support for other jurisdictions likely to be added in the future. Although there was no exact launch date for support on Coinbase retail platforms (coinbase.com, as well as in Android and iOS applications), the exchange usually makes cryptocurrencies available to its non-professional users within a few weeks after listing on Coinbase Pro.
“The XRP registry runs on a network of P2P servers. All accounts on this network can send or receive XRP from each other, while XRP can be used to send major fiat currencies between the two parties, ”says a Coinbase blog post. “Thus, XRP can function as an intermediate currency in transactions involving various currencies, such as US dollars, Japanese yens, euros, francs and other currencies used in the XRP network.”
A source familiar with Coinbase’s internal decision-making process said the company “is ready to support the asset, although it is not yet classified by regulators,” referring to an open question about whether XRP is considered a security.
Ripple Labs, its XRP II subsidiary, and a number of XRP-related individuals are currently responding to a federal class action claiming XRP - a security issued by a payment startup. Ripple continues to dismiss this charge.