Coinbase will not support Bitcoin Cash and Ripple

Coinbase Wallet has announced that as of January 2023, Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Ripple (XRP), Ethereum Classic (ETC) and Stellar (XLM) will no longer be supported due to their low usage. 

Coinbase Wallet will no longer support Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Ripple (XRP), ETC and XLM as of next January

Coinbase Wallet has announced its decision to no longer support Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Ripple (XRP), Ethereum Classic (ETC) and Stellar (XLM) due to their low usage. 

Specifically, the wallet warns users that after January 2023 any unsupported assets they hold will still be linked to their address and accessible through the Coinbase Wallet retrieval phrase.

Furthermore, the wallet also warns that after January 2023, sending or receiving such unsupported assets via Coinbase Wallet will result in their loss. 

Initially, the announcement stated 5 December as the end date for the relationship with the four crypto assets, but this has since been updated to next year. This decision clearly affects only Coinbase Wallet, without involving Coinbase.com or the Coinbase Exchange app. 

In contrast, Coinbase supports a wide range of networks. These include Ethereum and EVM-compatible networks, Polygon, BNB Chain, and Optimism.

In this regard, a Bitcoin Cash spokesperson told Cryptonomist:

“Likely just an outright lie, but even if true, it doesn’t matter much. A more interesting story would be about how magazines repeatedly has spread fake news in the past.”

Bitcoin Cash could become legal tender in St. Kitts and Nevis

Despite Coinbase’s stance of, it appears instead that the Caribbean state of St. Kitts and Nevis is deciding to make the crypto of Bitcoin Cash a legal tender soon.

The Caribbean country’s Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Terrance Drew, himself declared this, stating that he foresees a possible BCH being legal tender as early as March 2023. Meanwhile, Drew also stated that the decision will follow a process of due diligence and consultation with experts and the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank.

Specifically, during a conference on Saturday, Drew reportedly stated the following:

“I welcome the opportunity to dialogue further, with a view to exploring future opportunities to engage in bitcoin cash mining, and making bitcoin cash legal tender here in St. Kitts and Nevis by March 2023, once safeguards to our country and our people are guaranteed.”

As of next March 2023, St. Kitts and Nevis could thus join the countries of El Salvador and the Central African Republic in wanting to legally support a cryptocurrency, even if it is the fork of Bitcoin, BCH. 

Coinbase and siding with Ripple in the lawsuit against the SEC

While new horizons appear to be opening up for Bitcoin Cash, the decision by Coinbase Wallet to stop supporting Ripple is not very consistent with what happened earlier this month. 

In fact, Coinbase reportedly filed an amicus brief in favor of XRP in its never-ending lawsuit against the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 

An amicus brief is a legal document provided to a court, containing advice or information about the case, by a third party acting as a “friend” of the court. 

Specifically, the crypto-exchange would come to Ripple’s defense by accusing the SEC of not taking the right steps and regulations. 

The support was very significant for the entire crypto industry, even sparking the community to support such a cause through the group dubbed “Ripple’s Army,” which has since mobilized through chats and meetings a veritable army of XRP followers. 

A few days after the document was filed, the federal judge appears to have granted Coinbase’s request for its support of XRP in the Ripple vs SEC case. 

The prices of BCH, XRP, XLM and ETC

The prices of the four cryptocurrencies which will be removed from Coinbase Wallet. Taking a look at their charts, here is the situation. 

Bitcoin Cash (BCH), the Bitcoin fork born in 2017, has fallen to the 26th position by market capitalization, with a current price of $112.55.

In the past three months, its price has fluctuated around $115, with peaks touching $136 in September 2022, and a low of $89 touched instead in early November, after the news of FTX’s collapse. 

In contrast, Ripple (XRP), the crypto of the “banks” that has been in third place for many years, is now in seventh place by market cap, at the current price of $0.40. Strong support for XRP in its lawsuit against the SEC let the price touch $0.54 in late September, but it too was hit by the FTX collapse causing the price to drop to its low of $0.32 earlier this month. 

Ethereum Classic (ETC), on the other hand, is at the time of writing ranked 23rd by market capitalization, priced at $20. In early September 2022, ETC also touched $41 (double its value), experiencing a bear market to date. 

Stellar (XLM), the crypto created in 2015 for financial institutions, currently ranks 25th by market capitalization, priced at $0.089. 

Over the past three months, XLM has hovered around the price of $0.11, with a high touching $0.13. But after FTX collapsed earlier this month, the crypto dropped to $0.08 without recovering.