New York-based derivatives exchange Bakkt is delisting three popular altcoins due to recent regulatory developments in the United States. According to to the Fortune report, trading Solana (SALT), polygon (MAT) and Cardano (ADA) was suspended.
The decision follows lawsuits filed last week by the US Securities and Exchange Commission against crypto exchanges Binance and Coinbase. In the complaints, the regulator identified more than 20 digital assets as securities, including SOL, MATIC and ADA. The total number of cryptocurrencies now considered a “security” by the US regulator. reached an estimated 68.
Marc D’Annunzio, Bakkt’s general counsel and secretary, told Fortune that the company is implementing the changes “until there is more clarity on how to offer a more extensive list of coins in compliance with regulations.”
The SEC’s enforcement actions have added to the regulatory uncertainty, leading other trading platforms to remove token pairs in recent days. Earlier this week eToro stopped purchases from Algorand (ALGO), Decentraland (MOLL), MATIC and Dash (DASH) for US customers, just days after its competitor Robinhood support has ended for SOL, MATIC and ADA.
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Major impacts on the crypto space include the removal of altcoins tightening liquidity for tokens that are already suffering from a market downturn. According to CoinMarketCap data, MATIC, ADA, and SOL lost nearly $10 billion in market capitalization combined.
SOL’s market cap fell from $8.78 billion on June 4 to $5.85 billion at the time of writing; ADA’s market cap fell from $13.31 billion to $9 billion, while MATIC’s market cap fell from $8.37 billion to $5.32 billion over 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, so did Bakkt promoted the revision of token pairs trading on the platform, dumping 25 of the 36 crypto tokens listed.
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