The crypto asset in question will be delisted at midnight on Jan. 16 together with XRP trading pairs with Bitcoin, Ether (ETH) and Tether (USDT).
BitBox, the Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange operated by internet messaging giant Line, announced that it will delist XRP on Jan. 16.
Cointelegraph Japan reported BitBox’s decision earlier today.
The announcement published on the exchange’s website on Jan. 6 read:
“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.”
BitBox recommended that its users cancel all their trades before the delisting takes place. After XRP is delisted, BitBox’s customers will have until midnight Feb. 16 to withdraw the coin.
Reasons behind delisting unclear
As of press time, BitBox has not answered Cointelegraph’s request for clarification regarding its decision to delist XRP, the third-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization at $9.4 billion.
Looking at CoinMarketCap’s BitBox volume data, only 0.02% of the exchange’s volume came from XRP trading.
BitBox was launched in June 2018 by Line, the firm behind a major Japanese social messaging app. The firm started facilitating crypto trading globally with the exclusion of the United States and Japan at first, but obtained a crypto exchange operating license from Japan’s financial regulator in September last year and expanded its operations as BitMax.
Brad Garlinghouse, the CEO of the blockchain firm behind XRP, recently answered concerns that the company could control the crypto asset’s price due to the significance of its holdings. He claimed that the firm does not want to “dump” its associated XRP cryptocurrency despite selling huge amounts of it and strongly denied the company could influence the XRP price.
Money Sender Azimo to Use Ripple Tech and XRP for Philippines Remittance Corridor
European money transfer service Azimo is tapping tech from blockchain firm Ripple for its remittance corridor to the Philippines.Announced Tuesday, Azimo will begin using Ripple’s On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) service speed up the transfer of customer’s funds. The service will notably utilize the XRP cryptocurrency to move value to the Southeast Asian nation «in seconds,» where it is converted into Philippines pesos and passed to recipients.
Remittance firms provide a vital service for the large numbers of Filippino workers abroad looking to send funds back home to their families. The market is a valuable one, hitting a record high of $33.5 billion in 2019, 3.9 percent higher than previous year.
The partnership signals a move by the two companies looking to capture a larger portion of the country’s lucrative remittance market – the 4th largest globally, according to World Bank figures.
In addition, Ripple says ODL has the potential to reduce liquidity costs when compared to traditional banking solutions, which are often slow and costly.
Richard Ambrose, Azimo CEO, said the timing was right for such a partnership as Ripple has been increasing its remittance partnerships, most recently with an Intermex deal earlier in the month.
Ripple also took a $50 Million stake in MoneyGram in November, with the remittance platform agreeing to use Ripple’s solutions and XRP within its services as part of the deal.
“We’ve been interested for a long time in the potential of digital assets like XRP to make cross-border payments better for customers”, said Ambrose.
