TL;DR Breakdown: 

• Canadian exchange Newton will delist XRP and USDT. 
• Trading will stop from 31st December, and withdrawals will stop on January 15th. 
• Sudden developments in the SEC lawsuit has created regulatory concerns for the exchange. 

Newton, one of the leading crypto exchanges in Canada is set to delist XRP from its platform. According to their official statement, both XRP and stablecoin USDT will be removed from the platform on December 20th. Trading will be available until New Year’s eve and withdrawals will be turned off on January 15th. 

Newton’s decision is based on regulatory concerns over XRP, as Ripple continues to struggle because of the SEC lawsuit. Initially, the lawsuit was set to be decided on January 14th. However, new developments in the case last week has caused significant concerns that the SEC might have the edge over Ripple. 

On the other hand, the USDT delisting comes as a result of the growing concerns over the stablecoin from the Canadian securities regulators. Newton has explained this delisting of XRP and USDT is because of growing ‘legal and regulatory’ reasons but doesn’t provide any further elaboration. 

Ripple (XRP) faces heat over sudden Court of Appeal decision 

Although there were no planned court proceedings in the SEC lawsuit until January 14th, the Court of Appeal summoned both parties to re-submit their supporting argument briefs by December 8th. 

This sudden re-appeal was caused by a separate case between the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In this case, the Court of Appeals ruled that the EPA has the deliberative process privilege to deny showing any recording regarding the policymaker’s role. 

This ruling was picked up by the SEC attorney, who then re-appealed to the Court to allow the re-submission of both parties supporting briefs. Popular attorney Jeremy Hogan who has been following this case closely has stated that this ‘re-submission’ based on the new law slightly favours the SEC. 

These sudden proceedings have created massive FUD among the XRP community. The community was very optimistic over Ripple’s win in this lawsuit, as most legal debates thus far sided with the company. However, the sudden recall from the Court of Appeals has caused concerns among the community and investors. This also might have been the key reason behind Newton’s delisting of XRP. 

The altcoin has been hit hard during the latest bear market, as XRP is down by over 16% since last week.