Why Did Coinbase Suddenly Add Ripple?

By Kapil Gauhar

Since the US Securities and Exchange Commission started showing aggression towards digital asset offerings, particularly for their occasional security-esque nature, the crypto service providers have kept on their toes.

Investing in a misaligned project, listing the wrong asset, and participating in a certain blockchain could spell the disaster for some hopefuls in this space.

Though much of this ambivalence has pertained to fewer projects, such as the hundreds of initial coin offerings that reared their ugly heads in 2018’s rally, Ripple Labs has noticed discourse regarding the nature of its go-to digital asset, Ripple (XRP).

This way, American exchanges looking to stay on the good side of the SEC as well as similar entities have precluded away from listing Ripple, the 3rd cryptocurrency by market capitalization.

However, this changed on Monday, since the San Francisco-based Coinbase took the plunge after presumed months, if not years of internal deliberation.

Ripple (XRP) to Trade on Coinbase Pro

Ripple believers heaved a sigh of long-awaited satisfaction on Monday morning, since Coinbase Pro, the trading platform of the company for non-common Joes and Jills, divulged it’s motive to list XRP.

This was quickly mirrored in the value of the asset, that rallied by 11% following Pro’s Twitter announcement.

This Move By Coinbase May Be Logical

According to the reports, Coinbase’s current vice president of the institutional division, Dan Romero, once took to CNBC to articulate his firm’s sudden shift in business strategy from Bitcoin-focused to a multi-asset-focus.

Speaking to CNBC’s ‘Fast Money’ segment on the subject matter, Romero commented that Coinbase is simply responding to the needs of its customers.

Also, he claimed that a majority of Coinbase’s clients have begun to incessantly request to add more digital assets since there remain hundreds, if not thousands of projects which the American upstart has yet to support.

It has been known that Ripple’s XRP is one of the most sought after digital currencies in this entire ecosystem, which makes the recent listing all sensible.

Crypto Regulatory Concerns

What’s done is done, a few are wary that Coinbase may have been too rash with its new listing of XRP, particularly in regards to the uncertainty about XRP’s nature in the eyes of regulators.

A pro-crypto attorney at Washington DC-based Kobre & Kim, Jack Chervinsky, noted that although community sentiment is pointing to the idea that the recent attempt by the major cryptocurrency exchange to appease its pro-Ripple clients assures that XRP is a non-security, this may not be the case.

Chervinsky commented that there are so many variables at play for drawing any solid conclusions about the asset making it to Pro’s swelling list of tradable assets.

This way, the Kobre & Kim representative said that the only inference that can be drawn logically from this debacle is that “Coinbase believes the advantages outweigh the cost.”

But unless Securities and Exchange Commission and similar regulatory bodies offer a conclusive verdict on XRP, it would be difficult to say whether the digital currency is more security than not.