BITBOX, the cryptocurrency exchange by Japanese messaging giant LINE, delists XRP

By Selena 01/7/20 11:38 AM

On January 6, Binance Futures announced the listing of the XRP futures contract with leverage for the XRP/USDT trading pair of 75x. Immediately after this announcement was made, XRP had significant growth of nearly 10% within 24 hours, ending months of bleak trading of this coin on the cryptocurrency market. However, at present, the price of XRP has cooled and only increased slightly over 2% in the last 24 hours. The main reason is probably the exchange BITBOX, the platform owned by Japanese messaging giant LINE, decided to delists XRP.

BITBOX, a unit of LINE Corp, mysteriously delists XRP

NewsEnquire CEO Jaymin Shah, officially confirmed that the BITBOX exchange has canceled listing XRP.

@bitbox_official Delisting Announcement for @Ripple (#XRP)

Take a look @bgarlinghouse ?#Bitcoin #XRParmy #XRPCommunity #Ripple #BTC #Crypto #cryptocurrency pic.twitter.com/LTVZOOb5BA

— Jaymin Shah (@JayminSOfficial) January 7, 2020

BITBOX is also delisting XRP pairs tied against Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) and Tether (USDT). The delisting takes place on Jan. 16. As a result, users will no longer be able to trade and deposit XRP, and they have to wait until February 16 to withdraw.

However, the main reason for this action was not disclosed. In its announcement, BITBOX only mentioned a few general information such as poor performance, lack of liquidity, and regulatory issues. However, this is not convincing enough because XRP is still the third-largest cryptocurrency in the market, according to CoinMarketCap.

The notice stated:

“We keep a constant watch on all coins that are being traded on BITBOX. If a coin does not meet our standards based on its performance, reliability, liquidity, or law and regulatory requirements, it will be delisted from our exchange. To protect your assets and interests, we provide sufficient notice before delisting. ”

To express discontent with BITBOX’s unannounced decision, many users threatened to close their accounts on the exchange.

@bitbox_official realy??? Today i will close accaunt haha pic.twitter.com/7hIXGbPzM1

— M.M. ?? (@mitjaxrp) January 7, 2020

A hit on XRP in its primary market

BitBox was launched in July 2018 and is one of two LINE cryptocurrency exchanges that work to serve more than 80 million users. BITBOX is owned by LINE Corp, a popular social networking application in Japan, with about 700 million users worldwide. The remaining exchange is owned by LINE named Bitmax. Recently, Bitmax received a license from Japan’s financial regulator and was approved to provide trading services in XRP.

XRP is quite popular in Asian markets. Since 2018, especially with the participation of SBI Holdings in creating SBI Ripple Asia, a group of local banks using XRP for payment, Ripple has maintained a strong presence in Japan.

Therefore, this announcement is of great surprise to the XRP community. David Jevans, CEO of CextTrace, revealed that almost every Japanese bank is working with Ripple. However, working with Ripple does not mean they are using XRP. Therefore, the high possibility that XRP also plays no role for banks.

Ripple is also a strong supporter of regulatory clarity around the globe. In July 2019, the company’s CEO, Brad Garlinghouse, wrote a letter to the U.S. Congress, urging lawmakers not to draw all digital assets with a broad brush.

The delisting of assets on BITBOX takes place during the period in which it is experiencing one of its most vigorous protests in the past year, further fueled by Binance Futures’ XRP integration. While the price performance of XRP can be severely overwhelmed, it seems that this news does not affect the XRP price much. At press time, XRP is still trading around $ 0.215, up nearly 3% in the last 24 hours.

Disclaimer: This is not trading advice. Investors should research carefully before making a decision. We are not responsible for your investment decisions.

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