Coinbase Pro to Launch Trading Pairs with British Pounds

We are closer to public adoption of cryptocurrencies now than we have ever been and the rapid expansion of crypto trading activities across the globe is proof of this. Coinbase has always been one of the companies at the forefront of this revolution with its latest move being the introduction of new order book trading pairs for British Pounds (GBP) which will be launched on September 7 for United Kingdom-based traders.

The new trading pairs that were announced are ETH/GBP, ETC/GBP, LTC/GBP, and BCH/GBP – BTC/GBP is the only pair that is supported at this time. Earlier this month, Coinbase was reported to be planning to add GBP support, something that was elaborated by its CEO in a recent interview. Mid last month the company listed Ethereum Classic, a move that resulted in price spike because of the increased interest in and the liquidity of the digital currency.

“We have been working to introduce Faster Payments for as long as we’ve been operating in the UK. Customers not only benefit from increased speed but reduced cost as well. By no longer having to convert funds from Pound Sterling to Euros and vice versa to add and remove funds, there will be no more exchange rates. This will make crypto easily accessible to most people in the UK,” Zeeshan Feroz, the Coinbase UK CEO said.

How It Works

The launch of the four new trading pairs is part of Coinbase’s bid to make trading digital currencies easier for customers in the United Kingdom. Previously, Coinbase users in the country were forced to deposit fiat into an Estonian account and endure the harsh conversion fees and commissions. Not anymore.

“With support for UK domestic bank transfers in GBP via the Faster Payments Scheme, it is now significantly easier, faster and cheaper for UK customers to trade cryptocurrencies on the Coinbase platform. Coinbase Pro is the only major digital currency trading platform that supports UK Faster Payments and it’s our goal to be the trading platform of choice for UK crypto traders,” reads the Coinbase announcement.

Each of the new trading pairs will first be offered in a post-only phase that will be followed by a limit-only stage after which the fully trading services will be availed. During the post-only phases, Coinbase will allow the customers to post limit orders but matching will not be allowed for a minimum 10 minutes. After that, the limit orders will start matching but the customers will not be able to submit market orders. On the same note, the limit-only phases will also take a minimum of 10 minutes.

“If at any point one of the new order books does not meet our assessment for a healthy and orderly market, we may keep the book in one stage (as identified below) for a longer period of time, or suspend trading as per our Trading Rules.