One of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges, which offers trading of government-issued FIAT currencies against cryptocurrencies, Coinbase, announced on their official Medium channel that the company is exploring the possibilities to list five new cryptocurrencies.
According to the announcement, Cardano (ADA), Basic Attention Token (BAT), Stellar Lumens (XLM), Zcash (ZEC) and 0x (ZRX) are being seriously considered as the additions to their the platform.
This time, the San Francisco-based Coinbase seem to have taken the cautious path after all the problems the company had around the Bitcoin Cash (BCH) listing and all the fuss around the alleged insider trading back in December.
Why is Coinbase Taking the Cautious Route This Time?
A Reddit user mukiwa2, in an informal conversation on that social platform, stated that his “mate at CB (Coinbase)” informed him that Bitcoin Cash is going to be listed.
The next day, the prediction became a reality and those who believed the pompous user could have scored 700% in an hour after the listing happened.
A class action lawsuit followed the incident.
“We are making this announcement internally at Coinbase and to the public at the same time to remain transparent with our customers about support for future assets,” cautiously stated Coinbase on their blog this time.
While Cardano, Stellar, and Basic Attention Token didn’t come as a surprise, Zcash and 0x may be viewed as a kind of an upset.
Coinbase is Still Able to Surprise
Zcash is a privacy-based, Proof-of-Work coin, which allows users anonymous transactions on its network, and, although it is one of the oldest cryptocurrencies, was often subjected to scrutiny.
0x, on the other hand, is a cryptocurrency issued by the decentralised exchange. Decentralised exchanges, by their very philosophy, oppose the centralised counterparts, and Coinbase is the prime example of the latter.
One thing caught the eye of the investors around the world immediately after the announcement, and that is the fact that the crypto-exchanging giant graciously avoided Ripple’s XRP – again, which set an avalanche of negativity towards Coinbase across Twitter.
Where Will the Support be Available?
Coinbase also discloses the possibility that not all researched crypto-assets will be available for trading in all jurisdictions, as not every country has the same set of rules towards different kinds of coins.
“Regional support will depend on a case-by-case analysis that looks to legal, compliance, and other factors that are relevant to that jurisdiction,” they said. “In some cases, you should expect certain assets to be available in other jurisdictions before coming to the US,” Coinbase stated before explaining that they only plan to launch assets which are compliant with the local law, and therefore, some assets may only be available in specific jurisdictions.
When Will the Trading of These Cryptocurrencies Begin?
It looks like Coinbase doesn’t want to get ahead of themselves again, so we can’t get the answer to that question in the mentioned official announcement.
The only obvious thing all of us can do is follow social networks’ cryptocurrency channels to see if a mukiwa2-like user comes along and shares his/her insider information with the rest of the world – again.