BitBox Exchange to Delist Ripple

Singapore-based crypto exchange BitBox has announced that it is going to delist Ripple (XRP). Why are they doing this, and will this action have a negative effect on the token’s market performance?

Image by Miloslav Hamřík from Pixabay

The Story So Far

The BitBox exchange started out in 2018. It is owned by the internet messaging company Line, which is one of Japan’s biggest social platforms. They have confirmed that they are going to remove XRP from their list of coin options from January 16.

Their statement on the matter also says that all of the trading pairs involving Ripple will be removed too. These are XRP/BTC, XRP/ETH and XRP/USDT.

Clients of BitBox are recommended to cancel all their trades before the coin is delisted. Once the currency has been removed, they have until February 16 to withdraw their deposits in this currency.

How Is XRP Performing?

Ripple has had a strong start to 2020. It remains the third-biggest cryptocurrency according to its market capitalisation figures of around $9.4 billion. It has been the top-performing altcoin in the early days of the year, out-performing even a resurgent Bitcoin (BTC).

Of course, 2019 was a turbulent year for this currency. In the US, there is ongoing controversy over whether it should be listed as a security or not. In the UK, a ruling in its favour means that it is classed as an exchange or utility token.

Another issue that hasn’t gone away is the way that XRP executives have been selling off large quantities of tokens. This has kept the price low and has caused anger among many token-holders. Brad Garlinghouse is the Ripple CEO. He recently stated that they don’t want to control the price of the coin through dumping large numbers of coins.

What the Reason for Deciding to Delist Ripple?

The statement from BitBox points out that they keep a “constant watch on all coins that are being traded on BITBOX”. They point out that they delist currencies that fail to meet their standards on “performance, reliability, liquidity, or law and regulatory requirements”.

They will have taken into account the small amount of their volume that comes from XRP trading. This represents just 0.02% of their overall trading numbers. Some reports suggest that liquidity fears could be behind this decision.

This announcement of this move to delist Ripple could affect the coin in Asia. However, it is unlikely to have much of an impact elsewhere. Having said that, there are other issues around XRP that investors will be keeping a close eye on in the next few weeks.