I read it. Based on my understanding its only the mentioned pairing would be removed. Theres none mentioned about the usdt pairing. As Ive seen it, they cutting some alts pairing, and I also noticed that on p2p only usdt left for buy and sell and the alts has been removed. So your friends xrp still safe in my opinion but for advise, much better using a non custodial for storing those asset he have.