Bakkt follows Robinhood, eToro in delisting major altcoins: Report
Bakkt reportedly suspended trading of Solana, Polygon, and Cardano — tokens the U.S. SEC recently deemed securities.
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New York-based derivatives exchange Bakkt is delisting three popular altcoins due to recent regulatory developments in the United States. According to a Fortune report, trading of Solana (SOL), Polygon (MATIC), and Cardano (ADA) has been suspended.
The decision follows last week’s lawsuits brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) against crypto exchanges Binance and Coinbase. In the complaints, the regulator labeled over 20 digital assets as securities, including SOL, MATIC, and ADA. The total number of cryptocurrencies the U.S. regulator sees as a “security” has now reached an estimated 68.
Marc D’Annunzio, Bakkt’s general counsel and secretary, told Fortune the company was implementing changes “until there is further clarity on how to compliantly offer a more extensive list of coins.”
The SEC’s enforcement actions have contributed to regulatory uncertainty, leading other trading platforms to delist token pairs in the past days. Earlier this week, eToro halted purchases of Algorand (ALGO), Decentraland (MANA), MATIC and Dash (DASH) for U.S. customers, just a few days after its competitor Robinhood ended support for SOL, MATIC, and ADA.
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Among the major impacts on the crypto space, the delisting of altcoins tightens liquidity for tokens already suffering from the market downturn. Together, MATIC, ADA, and SOL lost nearly $10 billion in market capitalization, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
SOL’s market capitalization dropped from $8.78 billion on June 4 to $5.85 billion at the time of writing; ADA’s market cap dipped from $13.31 billion to $9 billion, while MATIC’s market cap declined from $8.37 billion to $5.32 billion in the same period.
Bakkt’s delisting follows its acquisition of blockchain technology platform Apex Crypto in April for $55 million in cash and stock. After the acquisition, Bakkt also promoted an overhaul of token pairs trading on the platform, dropping 25 of the 36 listed crypto tokens.
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