While many cryptocurrency exchanges have barred trading in Ripple’s XRP after an SEC lawsuit has the company and its founders in potentially hot water, there are some notable exceptions. Singapore-based KuCoin has opened up trading of XRP against the USD coin (USDC). While the exchange had to deal with a noteworthy hack last fall – during which some $281 million in assets were stolen – it seems to be getting back on track. KuCoin is backed by the Chinese firm IDG Capital.
XRP is virtually untradeable in the U.S., with regulators from the SEC clamping down on Ripple’s alleged unregistered sale of securities. The SEC has not provided specific guidance to Ripple Labs and, at any point in the past several years could have specified to the company’s founders that they took issue with its practices. Instead, the SEC let the sales continue, waiting until some critical mass of evidence gathered before making a case or, perhaps, simply not knowing or understanding how to treat the asset.
Ripple Labs and, by extension, XRP, is reviled in some corners of the crypto world, with many detractors arguing that its too centralized and that the Ripple Labs founders have kept too many tokens for themselves in an obvious ploy to enrich themselves. Even so, the SEC’s action has many feeling mixed emotions, torn between their disdain for what they believe is an overly-centralized approach and natural aversions to the heavy-handed regulations the SEC may bring to bear in the future.
KuCoin Takes Advantage of Singapore’s Economic Freedom
Singapore, one of the most economically free nations on earth, is the perfect landing spot for any crypto exchange, and it’s likely that KuCoin’s location there is aiding it significantly in being able to offer XRP without any real fear of reprisals from the relatively less free U.S. For those trading XRP on KuCoin, there is a limit to withdrawals of 2 BTC, the result of U.S. users not being able to complete the Know Your Customer (KYC) registration procedure on the exchange.
Even more noteworthy is the fact that while most exchanges have delisted XRP, Uphold and Gatehub have refused to do so. KuCoin, on the other hand, is the only exchange to actually add the cryptocurrency to its trading pairs.
