Currently, Coinbase is the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the US. And considering the development in the industry, Coinbase is looking to offer more for its users. Coinbase is considering to add five additional tokens to its platform. It has been reported that the five digital coins that will be included are stellar lumens, Cardano, basic attention token, 0x and Zcash.
However, the blog post clarified on Friday that nothing is final yet for these cryptocurrencies. According to the San Francisco-based crypto exchange, “these assets will require additional exploratory work and we cannot guarantee they will be listed for trading”. One of the things that they are taking into consideration is the limited functionality of some coins. And also, Coinbase is also tiptoeing on certain coins since these coins are yet to be determined as securities or not. And lastly, there is the chance that some of these coins will only be available in certain countries.
Regulatory Changes
Regulatory changes are something that Coinbase is looking into. Bitcoin and Ethereum are the only ones that have been considered as commodities by the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Though it has helped in boosting Bitcoin and Ethereum’s price, the rest of the other altcoins are left to question whether or not these digital assets should be considered as securities or not.
And also, Ripple’s situation isn’t also helping. Ripple has been facing lawsuits claiming that the cryptocurrency is actually a security. In fact, because of the regulatory scrutiny that the industry is experiencing, Coinbase only offered four coins.
Why Add The Five Tokens?
Brian Kelly explained as to why they are going to add the digital coins. For one, he explained that Cardano is works something similar to Ethereum. “They have working network” according to him. He also added that “they have a live road map. That’s important. That’s what the (Securities and Exchange Commission) said was important, so it’s not a security”.
For the Basic Attention Token, he said that “you can use Basic Attention Token to pay for content on the web”. As for “Zero x”, he thinks that it has a decentralized protocol.
Stellar, on the other hand, has been compared to ripple. And lastly, Zcash has been considered as “probably one of the most likely” to be approved by the digital currency exchange.
Japan’s Ban on Cryptos Providing Privacy
Since Coincheck was hacked, regulatory changes were imposed. One of which is to ensure that the crypto exchange companies operating are going to meet the standards set by regulators. And also, another change in the way crypto exchanges operate is the call to ban cryptocurrencies that provide extra privacy towards users. These digital currencies included Monero and Zcash.
Now, could it be a good move by Coinbase to allow cryptocurrencies that provide an extra layer of privacy towards its user? We’ve also been informed by the power of cryptos when used anonymously. In fact, Russians were able to make use of Bitcoin in 2016 in order to pay for the website domain and hosting of the website that contained hacked emails pertaining to Hilary Clinton.
