US exchanges are suspending or delisting XRP left and right

Binance.US, the American branch of the global crypto exchange, and crypto-friendly asset trading service eToro are the latest platforms to suspend XRP trading in the United States.

Announcing the news on Thursday, eToro revealed that U.S. customers will not be able to trade XRP starting Jan. 3, 2021. Customers with existing trades at the time will have three weeks from that date to close all open positions, the platform added in its statement.

For Binance.US, the effective date of its XRP delisting is Jan. 13, 2021. However, the delisting will not affect the claim process for Flare's Spark (FLR) token airdrop distribution event.

Binance.US and eToro now join the likes of Coinbase and Bittrex as major exchanges to halt XRP trading for American traders. Coinbase is also the subject of a lawsuit from a disgruntled trader accusing the platform of knowingly selling XRP as an unlicensed security to its users.

These actions have come in the wake of the enforcement action by the Securities and Exchange Commission against Ripple. The SEC is suing Ripple for violating securities laws in its sale of XRP tokens.

Aside from exchanges delisting or suspending XRP trading, U.S.-based investment firms with XRP positions have also liquidated their holdings. Digital-asset manager Grayscale recently dumped about $5.77 million worth of XRP tokens following the SEC lawsuit. Earlier in December, Bitwise Asset Management sold off all its XRP, removing the token from its Bitwise 10 Crypto Index Fund.

Meanwhile, Ripple said it plans to fight back against the SEC’s accusations, urging investors not to accept the commission’s stance on the matter. A virtual pretrial has already been set for Feb. 2021.