Bitcoin Global News (BGN)

March 29, 2018 -- ADVFN Crypto NewsWire -- San Francisco-based Coinbase Inc. has announced that it will soon list Ethereum-based cryptocurrencies on its exchanges. Ethereum-based tokens, all built on the ERC20 technical standard, include Bancor, Binance Coin, Dragonchain, Golem, EOS, OmiseGo, 0x, Qtum, Tron, VeChain, and Waltonchain.

On Monday, Coinbase said in a blog post, “This paves the way for supporting ERC20 assets across Coinbase products in the future, though we aren’t announcing support for any specific assets or features at this time. We are announcing this both internally and to the public as consistent with our process for adding new assets.”

The Ethereum market did not seem to react to Coinbase’s announcement, with the price of an ether remaining relatively stable after the announcement, despite the fact that processing ERC20 token transactions is the most high-profile use of the Ethereum network besides the processing of ether transactions itself. Coinbase’s failure to mention specific ERC20 tokens may have dampened the news among investors.

Coinbase support has a strong effect on the tokens it chooses to list. When Coinbase denied rumors that it had plans to list Ripple in January, the price of XRP dropped 20 percent.

On Tuesday, CEO Brian Armstrong said about Coinbase’s coming ERC20 support: “Neither Coinbase nor its sister exchange GDAX seek to offer any new currencies digitally. As of the date of this statement, we have made no decision to add additional assets to either GDAX or Coinbase. Any statement to the contrary is untrue and not authorized by the company.”

Coinbase's custody team is currently evaluating which ERC20 tokens to support for deposits and withdrawals. The GDAX team is waiting for more clarity on the regulation and rules before they choose which ERC20 coins they will support. Any asset listed on GDAX will eventually be added to the Coinbase index, according to the Coinbase Inc.'s methodology. But at any one point in time, GDAX may have more assets listed than Coinbase, as a listing on GDAX does not guarantee a listing on Coinbase.

An ERC20 coin will only appear on the Coinbase mobile app after it debuts on the Coinbase’s GDAX professional exchange, where tokens must first prove to be reasonably price-stable and liquid. Coinbase halted Bitcoin Cash trades just two minutes after they went live on GDAX in January due to extreme price volatility. Coinbase Inc. has since been able to successfully rollout Bitcoin Cash trading on both GDAX and Coinbase.

GDAX is also waiting for additional regulatory clarity before deciding which ERC20 assets to list first.

By: BGN Editorial Staff