Following in the footsteps of Robinhood and eToro, New York-based crypto platform Bakkt has reportedly delisted three popular altcoins. Here are the reasons behind this decision.
As reported by Cointelegraph, Bakkt has taken a similar stance to other crypto platforms and unanimously removed altcoins from its trading list due to recent regulatory developments in the United States.
“Bakkt is reported to have halted trading of SOL, MATIC, and ADA. These three tokens have been deemed securities by the US SEC,” wrote the crypto media in a recent press statement.
According to Fortune’s report, trading of Solana, Polygon, and Cardano has been suspended on the derivatives exchange.
This decision comes in the wake of a lawsuit filed last week by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) against the crypto exchanges Binance and Coinbase.
In the lawsuit, the regulator classified over 20 digital assets as securities, including SOL, MATIC, and ADA.
The total number of cryptocurrencies considered securities by the US regulator currently stands at an estimated 68.
Marc D’Annunzio, legal advisor and secretary at Bakkt, told Fortune that the company is in the process of making changes.
“(At least) until there is further clarity on how to offer a broader list in accordance with regulations,” said D’Annunzio.
SEC’s enforcement actions have led to regulatory uncertainty, resulting in other trading platforms delisting token pairs in recent days.
Earlier this week, eToro ceased the purchase of Algorand, Decentraland, MATIC, and Dash for its US customers, just a few days after its competitor, Robinhood, stopped support for SOL, MATIC, and ADA.
Significant Impact on the Crypto Landscape
The delisting of altcoins has tightened liquidity for tokens that have already experienced market declines, inevitably causing a significant impact on the crypto space.
Together, MATIC, ADA, and SOL have lost nearly US$10 billion in market capitalization, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
SOL’s market capitalization has dropped from US$8.78 billion on June 4th to US$5.85 billion at the time of writing. Meanwhile, ADA’s market capitalization decreased from US$13.31 billion to US$9 billion, and MATIC’s market capitalization decreased from US$8.37 billion to US$5.32 billion in the same period.
The delisting by Bakkt follows its acquisition of blockchain technology platform Apex Crypto in April for US$55 million in cash and stock.
After the acquisition, Bakkt also revamped the trading pairs of tokens on its platform, delisting 25 out of the 36 listed cryptocurrencies. [ab]
