Earlier this week the crypto world was abuzz with news that Ripple would become available on Coinbase Pro. Yet recent research has argued that it could be violating one of Coinbase’s listing rules.
Let’s go back a couple of days first. Ripple’s price had surged by 12% following the Coinbase news; with the proviso that Ripple (XRP) deposits had to reach ‘sufficient’ levels before trading officially began, deposits were being allowed as of 1000 PT on February 25.
A blog post on the Coinbase website, dated Feb 25, argued that XRP/fiat pairs will be available in several jurisdictions initially, including non-New York US states, Canada, Singapore, Australia, the UK, and several other European countries. Coinbase added that XRP was not yet available on Coinbase.com or via mobile apps.
Coinbase had previously listed in December more than 30 potential tokens which could be listed the following year, with XRP the first to be added.
Yet Diar, an industry publication analysing digital currency and assets, spotted a potential issue with the listing. Writing in its latest newsletter, Diar explained: “The potential addition of XRP has been a contentious topic within the cryptocurrency industry for the possibility of the token being labelled as a security. However, Coinbase has clearly abandoned one of their own pillars for the potential listing of a cryptocurrency.
“In their ‘Digital Asset Framework’ that outlines requirements to be listed, the exchange states that ‘the ownership stake retained by the team is a minority stake’, a fact far from reality as Ripple holds nearly 60% of the supply in escrow with a release schedule,” Diar added.
So what does this mean? Entrepreneur and investor Alistair Milne questioned whether Ripple had paid for its listing, citing on Twitter an ambiguous response from Elliott Suthers, Coinbase director of communications. Later Miguel Vias, head of XRP markets at Ripple, responded that Coinbase’s listing of XRP was their ‘independent decision.’ “We did not give them anything to make it happen,” Vias added.
According to the most recent figures, XRP saw a decrease of approximately 2.5% over the day.
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