XRP falls after Ripple says it wants more regulation

pulse

April 16, 2018 5:01 PM

The company's head of regulatory relations asked UK lawmakers for "more rules and clarity" in an interview with The Telegraph.

The company's head of regulatory relations asked UK lawmakers for "more rules and clarity" in an

Ripple's XRP cryptocurrency fell as much as 8.5% Monday after the company's head of regulatory relations asked UK regulators to beef up their cryptocurrency rules.

"We’re at that time now where we need more clarity and rules and we need more certainty," Ripple's Ryan Zagone told The Telegraph. "It’s a good time to start revisiting that ‘wait and see’ approach taken by regulators."

In the interview, Zagone urged British lawmakers to follow Japan's lead in regulating the nascent cryptocurrency space. Lawmakers in that country passed legislation last spring which required all crypto exchanges to apply for licenses in order to operate.

“Regulation creates the guardrails on the highway that allows new entrants to come in, particularly institutional investors,” he told the paper.

Other major cryptocurrencies are also in the red Monday, though none as much as XRP.

The third-largest cryptocurrency by market cap has seen steep declines in 2018 as prices for most major cryptocurrencies slid from their mid-December peaks. Since the beginning of the the year, XRP has lost 68%, compared to bitcoin's 40% slide.

Ripple has struggled to convince exchanges like Coinbase or Winklevoss-founded Gemini to support XRP. Bloomberg News reported earlier this month that the company had even offered lump sumps of cash to both companies to list its cryptocurrency.

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