Is Coinbase Really Delisting FLOKI Meme Coin? Here's Everything You Need to Know

There have been concerns lately in the crypto community with rumors that Coinbase is about to delist FLOKI, sending some holders into a panic.

Coinbase is not delisting FLOKI (Floki Inu) from its exchange, despite rumors to the contrary. Instead, the exchange is suspending trading in the meme coin token in New York State, the official FLOKI announced.

Coinbase is suspending trading in several tokens in New York State, including meme coins like PEPE and WIF. It seems that the exchange is unable to list or continue listing any tokens in the state due to the stringent regulatory landscape.

According to the FLOKI team, the trading suspension in New York will have a minimal impact as the state only accounts for a small percentage of Coinbase’s total FLOKI trading volume.

“Coinbase is suspending trading in several tokens in New York State, including, unfortunately for some, our great friend, PEPE, and also WIF, which they recently listed, and also three other tokens that were listed on Coinbase in the past six months or so,” the FLOKI team explained.

They added, “It seems that Coinbase is unable to list or continue listing any tokens in New York State due to the state’s regulatory framework, which is known to be particularly strict.”

The team continued, “Now, to put this into perspective, our estimation is that New York State accounts for 2-5% of Coinbase’s volume in FLOKI at most. And when we zoom out even further, Coinbase as a whole usually represents about 1% of FLOKI’s global daily trading volume.”

According to the team, the impact of even the worst rumors about Coinbase being about to delist FLOKI would be minimal – a “drop in the bucket.”

Those who are in the know about crypto regulations will be aware that New York has some of the toughest rules. The FLOKI team believes that these strict regulations are what led to the trading suspension, rather than any issues with FLOKI itself.

“Those who follow closely will know that New York has an extremely strict regulatory regime for crypto, and they are currently in the process of applying these rules to major exchanges like Coinbase,” the team explained.

Highlighting an interesting pattern, they noted that Coinbase has only listed six meme coins in New York during this bull cycle – BONK, PEPE, WIF, FLOKI, TURBO, and GIGA. The first three were listed last year, while FLOKI, TURBO, and GIGA were all added at the exact same time about six weeks ago.

Now, those same three coins are all having their New York trading suspended together. This timing strongly suggests that this is about New York’s regulatory approach to meme coins in general, not about any specific issues with the coins themselves.

Despite the New York trading suspension, the FLOKI team highlighted some impressive regulatory recognition they’ve received recently.

Just a few months back, the Global Markets Advisory Committee of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) – the federal body that oversees crypto regulation throughout the U.S. – featured FLOKI as one of just four cryptocurrencies in their report on utility tokens. The other three tokens mentioned were ETH, AVAX, and one other token.

For a meme coin to be grouped with major layer-1 blockchains in a report by a federal agency is a huge feat, and the FLOKI team sees it as a testament to their focus on building utility for the token.

The narrative around meme coins has shifted significantly in recent times, with several reports highlighting the role of meme coins in broader crypto adoption. Moreover, the meme coin market has witnessed a remarkable surge in 2024, with several new meme coins like PEPE and WIF gaining immense popularity.