Coinbase Global announced Thursday (July 13) that the digital token XRP, which is owned by Ripple Labs, will be relisted on the crypto exchange.
The announcement follows a ruling from a U.S. District Court judge that XRP is not a security when sold to the general public, Seeking Alpha reported Thursday.
The crypto exchange had suspended trading of the token in January 2021 after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a lawsuit against Ripple.
In a Thursday Twitter post, Coinbase said that XRP trading will be reenabled on the XRP network. It added, “Do not send this asset over other networks or your funds may be lost. Transfers for this asset remain available on @Coinbase & @CoinbaseExch in the regions where trading is supported.”
In a follow-up tweet, Coinbase added that XRP trading on its XRP-USD, XRP-USDT and XRP-EUR trading pairs will launch in phases, though support for the token may be restricted to certain countries and jurisdictions.
The news of the court ruling has been welcomed by traders and investors alike, especially given that the ruling from the U.S. District Court judge provided clarity regarding the token’s status, according to the Seeking Alpha report.
“With clarity from Ripple’s case, there is increasing probability that resolution of Coinbase’s case could come earlier than expected,” investment bank Oppenheimer wrote in a note, per the report.
The judge’s ruling Thursday said that while cryptocurrencies sold to institutional investors by Ripple are securities under federal regulations, the tokens are not securities when sold to the public, who are less sophisticated investors and may not have the same understanding of the transaction.
“Institution buyers would have understood that Ripple was pitching a speculative value proposition for XRP with potential profits to be derived from Ripple’s entrepreneurial and managerial efforts,” U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres wrote in the decision, Bloomberg reported Thursday.
As PYMNTS reported Thursday, the landmark ruling dulls the sharp teeth of the SEC’s ongoing existential threat to the crypto industry in America. Ripple’s XRP token rose sharply on the news, trading up more than 70% as of Thursday afternoon.