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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."

5 of 29 comments (clear)

  1. Sure, why not. by Joce640k · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

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    No sig today...
    1. Re:Sure, why not. by alvinrod · · Score: 4, Insightful

      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.

  2. Coinbase is the new Franklin Mint by magzteel · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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..

    1. Re:Coinbase is the new Franklin Mint by Joce640k · · Score: 2

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

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      No sig today...
  3. Sunflowers, daisies added to the flower platform by xack · · Score: 3, Insightful

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