Bitcoin has had its ups and downs these past few weeks. The cryptocurrency fell to staggering lows which sent scares well across the market with people dumping precious Bitcoin and the whales greedily lapping it up. The downward spiral has been one’s man loss and another’s gain.
Coinbase Endorses Even More Cryptocurrencies
And so, amid the scares sent well across the market, Coinbase is nowhere near giving up on cryptocurrencies just yet. The institution is committed to bringing around reliable solutions for its crypto-minded users. And as a result, XRP fans will get to enjoy the token being traded on one of the largest exchanges for digital assets in the world.
According to Coinbase, the company will be adding not only XRP, but 30 new cryptocurrencies, which the company holds to be important stepping-stones towards the development of the entire sector. This announcement came on Friday, December 7 in a blog post.
We are continuing to explore the addition of new assets, and will be working with local banks and regulators to add them in as many jurisdictions as possible.
This comes on the tail of recent updates that re-defined how Coinbase would choose whether to accept a cryptocurrency or rule it out altogether. The company has introduced significant changes to ensure that its offer is more accommodating to developers as well as users.
Coinbase also stated that ultimately the goal behind accepting more cryptocurrencies was to create a financial world that is far more independent and transparent. However, Coinbase realizes that it cannot just accept 30 new cryptocurrencies. This would require significant exploratory work which will need technical expertise and legal advice.
Some of the most notable digital currencies to join the offer are EOS, Cardano, Stellar, Tezos, ChainLink, Mainframe and Dai. But most importantly, the exchange is adding XRP, which is the second-largest cryptocurrency out there. This will significantly expand Coinbase’s own customer reach and it will help legitimize one of the more noteworthy assets out there.
Will It All Come to Pass?
As outlined before, there are technical challenges that need to be addressed head on for this to even work out in the first place. With this in mind, Coinbase President and COO Asiff Hirji talked to CNBC substantiation the rumors well before the announcement. XRP even grew 10% on the news that it will be added to one of the world’s leading crypto exchanges.
To make it all happen now, Coinbase will have to hew closer to regulatory norms. Valued at $8 billion, the crypto exchange cannot afford itself legal faux pas for multiple reasons. First, it operates in one of the less permissible industries and secondly, SEC and other regulators are increasing their scrutiny.
Having said this, Coinbase will have to seek very close ties with SEC and other regulators who are offering help and oversight. This would allow the company to be complacent with the law while continuing to add value for its customers and expand its offer significantly.
SEC has already been going after exchanges that have failed to officially state their business with the Securities Commission. EtherDelta, another exchange, also bore civil penalties for overlooking certain legal norms that had not been observed.
Ripple, the company that owns XRP (roughly 60%) has been one of the main instigators of this legal move. The companies have been negotiating since April to have XRP included in Coinbase’s portfolio.
Adding new assets requires significant exploratory work from both a technical and compliance standpoint, and we cannot guarantee that all the assets we are evaluating will ultimately be listed for trading.
Both Coinbase and Ripple are pushing in the right direction, as they acknowledge the need to create a legal framework that will allow every individual cryptocurrency to be accepted and to operate openly.
This would require the approval of regulators and of course the expertise of professionals who are following the crypto industry up close. Oftentimes, regulators would only seek to impose a penalty rather than help create the legal grounds for the future of certain cryptocurrencies, and SEC has been quite strict, although admittedly – accommodating.
Safety Above All Else
As more cryptocurrencies break into the mainstream, crypto exchanges such as Coinbase will have to ask themselves – how do we guarantee the safety of our customers? It’s a question that has bothered many other crypto exchanges and an answer is sorely needed. To say that cryptocurrency are completely safeguarded would be wrong.
How then to make sure that hackers are kept at bay and the digital economy continues to develop without running a risk of getting hijacked in mid-way?
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