Coinbase Says It's Exploring Adding 5 New Coins To Its Platform (bitcoinist.com)

Coinbase, the largest U.S.-based digital currency exchange, announced that it is "exploring the addition" of five new cryptocurrencies to its platform. The five cryptocurrencies being considered are Cardano (ADA), Basic Attention Token (BAT), Stellar Lumens (XLM), Zcash (ZEC), and 0x (ZRX). Bitcoinist reports: Coinbase's announcement claims to arrive for both employees and the public at the same time. Notes Coinbase: "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." Despite the apparent attempt at remaining transparent, the statement of intent has led many to question why the exchange giant is even making an announcement of its "exploration" at all -- especially following a cut-and-dry announcement of future support for Ethereum Classic.

The company pre-emptively responded to such questions by explaining: "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. Furthermore, our listing process may result in some of these assets being listed solely for customers to buy and sell, without the ability to send or receive using a local wallet. We may also only enable certain ways to interact with these assets through our site, such as supporting only deposits and withdrawals from transparent Zcash addresses. Finally, some of these assets may be offered in other jurisdictions prior to being listed in the U.S." Coinbase also said to expect future announcements of exploration: "Going forward, you should expect that we will make similar announcements about exploring the addition of multiple assets. Some of these assets may become available everywhere, while others may only be supported in specific jurisdictions."

Comments

Sure, why not.

[Joce640k]

The money changers never lose, a commission is a commission.

The only question for them is, "Will the commissions add up to the effort needed to support all those other coin types"?

ie. Are there enough idiots to go around?

Apparently: The answer is yes.

Re:Sure, why not.

[alvinrod]

It's not quite that simple. If you let anything onto your platform and some of it is really bad, there's a risk that you scare off a lot of customers as people lose trust. It's the same reason that a store will try to stock a lot of brands, but won't put out anything utterly terrible as it eventually reflects on them for carrying poor products and people will go to a different store. Maybe it works in the short term to do this, but not everyone is aiming to maximize gains in the next quarter at the expense of next year or even farther down the road.

Crypto currencies (and everything that surrounds them) are rife with scams right now, which isn't wholly unexpected when you have something that most people don't understand well and are only doing because they think they will get rich quick from doing it. Just because the new gold rush is digital doesn't mean the rest of it should be expected to play out differently.

Re:Sure, why not.

[DogDude]

"Will the commissions add up to the effort needed to support all those other coin types"?

What effort? It's just software. Set it up once, and forget about it.

Re:Sure, why not.

[Joce640k]

Development costs.

Re:Sure, why not.

[tlhIngan]

The only question for them is, "Will the commissions add up to the effort needed to support all those other coin types"?

It always does. Because if it doesn't, you raise your commissions. I don't think there's that much competition out there, especially if you've made a name for yourself as a trustwothy exchange.

Coinbase is the new Franklin Mint

[magzteel]

They can always announce some new Elvis limited edition collectible plates and find somebody to buy them for the low low price of $39.95 plus shipping and handling. If you get in early you can get double your order for the same price too! Just pay the additional shipping and handling..

Re:Coinbase is the new Franklin Mint

[iggymanz]

except you'll find decades old Franklin Mint things on ebay actually worth some money and appreciated in value.

Re:Coinbase is the new Franklin Mint

[Joce640k]

With e-coins you don't even have to manufacture or ship anything.

Re:Coinbase is the new Franklin Mint

[sheramil]

They could just cut to the chase and name them after, howevermanythehell Pokemon there are. They won't be satisfied until they have their own scrolling marquee at the exchange, listing the various types and their relative, imaginary worths. "Good lord, Beedrill is down to Magikarp! SELL!"

Re:AC Investigating Adding Several First Posts To

[Joce640k]

Let us know if/when that works out for you.

Lightning atomic swaps coming..

[xtal]

Exchanges are evil.

Interesting no actual coin with hard privacy (e.g. XMR) is listed. Zcash is tainted by Ver's exposure IMO.

Re:Lightning atomic swaps coming..

[Joce640k]

Plus you get to vanish into the ether with a lot of money when you get bored of running one.

Sunflowers, daisies added to the flower platform

[xack]

If tulips can moon then so can these flowers. We're all going to be rich!

They'll lose if they get caught

[rsilvergun]

in a money laundering sting op. This one comes to mind since the woman was fine until the undercover cop mentioned he was moving drugs with the money. There's several more.

I'm not saying coinbase will fall afoul immediately, but the price of bitcoin's dropped 70% in a few months (down from high of 20k to around 6k). I'm sure their cut's way down. Even if they don't take a percentage they're gonna be out money on volume as people scared off by that much volatility exit the market. It's going to get tempting to take on more dangerous trades...

"these assets"

[Camel Pilot]

FTFA ---

"these assets"

Bit coins are NOT assets... don't even pretend they are.

Move on...

[Peter P Peters]

It's 2018 and we still have stories about Crypto and Facebook on Slashdot? Move on, nothing to see here...