Robinhood Ceases Trading of SEC-Listed Tokens Amid Lawsuit Allegations

Robinhood Ends Support for Cardano, Polygon, and Solana

Robinhood (HOOD), the popular trading platform, will end support for Cardano (ADA), Polygon (MATIC), and Solana (SOL) on June 27th – the three tokens that were named as securities in recent the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) lawsuits against Binance and Coinbase.

“Based on our latest review, we’ve decided to end support for Cardano (ADA), Polygon (MATIC), and Solana (SOL) on June 27th, 2023, at 6:59 PM ET,” Robinhood said in a blog post. “No other coins are affected, and your crypto is still safe on Robinhood,” the post added.

Continued Trading and Transfer Until Deadline

Users are able to continue trading and transferring the three tokens on the app until the deadline. After support stops on June 27, tokens left in a user’s account will be automatically sold for market value, Robinhood said.

Regular Review of Cryptocurrencies

The decision comes as part of the company’s regular review of cryptocurrencies, Robinhood said. However, those were the only tokens that were listed on the trading platform, which were named as securities by the recent SEC lawsuits.

Available Cryptocurrencies After Delisting

After the delisting, the platform will offer trading for 15 different cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH), dogecoin (DOGE), and avalanche (AVAX) – all of which were not included in the SEC lawsuit as securities.

Robinhood’s Struggles with SEC Compliance

Robinhood said during a recent industry testimony in the U.S. House of Representatives that it tried to register as a special-purpose broker for digital assets but couldn’t get the SEC to guide the trading platform into crypto compliance, though the agency’s staff seemed to want to help.

“When Chair Gensler at the SEC in 2021 said, ‘Come in and register,’ we did,” said Robinhood Markets’ chief compliance lawyer Dan Gallagher in his testimony. “We went through a 16-month process with the SEC staff trying to register a special purpose broker dealer. And then we were pretty summarily told in March that that process was over and we would not see any fruits of that effort,” he added.

Reactions from Solana, Cardano, and Polygon

Both Solana and Cardano have rejected the claims of the tokens being a security, while Polygon declined to comment earlier to CoinDesk about the matter. The three tokens were mostly unchanged on Friday, after taking a hit earlier this week, following SEC lawsuits.

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