Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the US, announced on Friday that it was planning to add five additional coins – Cardano (ADA), Basic Attention Token (BAT (LON:BATS)), Stellar (XLM), Zcash (ZEC), and Ox (ZRX). It would negotiate with local banks and regulators to list the tokens so that traders from as many jurisdictions as possible could trade them. However, as Cardano put it, it couldn’t guarantee that all the coins will be added.
Shortly after the news, the prices of the mentioned coins surged by at least 10% while most of the cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, ended the day without significant changes.
Coinbase said in their blog post:
“We are exploring the addition of several new assets, and will be working with local banks and regulators to add them in as many jurisdictions as possible.”
“Unlike the ongoing process of adding Ethereum Classic, which is technically very similar to Ethereum, these assets will require additional exploratory work and we cannot guarantee they will be listed for trading,”
the company added.
Currently, traders from the US and 32 other countries can trade four coins – Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, and Ether. If the plan succeeds, then the San Francisco-based exchange might double its list, becoming more attractive for crypto investors. In the past, Coinbase also announced that it was considering adding Ethereum Classic. Some rumors said Ripple could also make Coinbase’s list, but the exchange operator denied any such plans.
The company decided to come up with the announcement both internally at Coinbase and in media to avoid any suspicions of insider trading. Last year, such an incident happened when the exchange announced that it would list Bitcoin Cash.
While Coinbase doesn’t know when the mentioned coins will be available for trading, it said it would come up with updates on its blog and twitter account. The chances are that some of the coins will first be available in other countries than the US due to regulations. Coinbase is licensed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fact that Coinbase chose to add these coins doesn’t mean that the SEC treats them as securities, which is why some of the coins might not be able in all US jurisdictions.
The exchange presented each token with a short description and mentioned that traders should expect to operate only with transparent Zcash addresses rather than hidden ones.
In the future, we might see similar announcements that refer to the listing of other coins, Coinbase said.
Shortly after the news, the price of the five cryptocurrencies jumped. According to Coinmarketcap data, Stellar added 11%, Cardano – 11.2%, Zcash – 15.24%, Ox – 27.21%, and BAT jumped 22.4%. Ethereum Classic also reacted with a 5% increase.
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