The US-based leading cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has rolled out three new updates to simplify the world of cryptocurrencies, including understanding, exploring and trading them. These updates are dubbed 'Coinbase Bundle', 'Informational Asset Pages', and 'Coinbase Learn'.
Coinbase Bundle allows you to buy a bundle of five cryptocurrencies supported on the exchange - Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Ethereum (ETH), Ethereum Classic (ETC), and Litecoin (LTC) - for as little as US$25, using the current market cap at the time of purchase. Once a bundle is purchased, the underlying cryptocurrencies are stored in your respective wallets and behave like separate cryptocurrencies in your account, which can be bought, sold, sent or received as an individual asset. Coinbase Bundle will be available to customers in the US and Europe.
The exchange is also launching Informational Asset Pages for the top 50 cryptocurrencies, based on the market capitalisation. Coinbase said that only 3% of people can name four or more cryptocurrencies and it wants people to think beyond “Bitcoin” when building out their cryptocurrency portfolio. While most of these cryptocurrencies are not currently available to buy or sell on Coinbase, the exchange said that these informational pages are designed as a starting point to learn about new cryptocurrencies. On these pages, anyone can view historic trading data, current market cap, a description of the cryptocurrency, and links to relevant white papers and project websites. The exchange is also launching a new section Coinbase Learn on its website to educate those who are new to cryptocurrencies.
Earlier this week, Coinbase announced a new process for listing assets that will allow it to rapidly list most digital assets that are compliant with local law, by satisfying listing requests in a jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction manner. In practice, this means some new assets listed on its platform may only be available to customers in select jurisdictions for a period of time. Earlier in July of this year, Coinbase announced that it is considering adding the five digital assets on its platform - Cardano (ADA), Basic Attention Token (BAT), Stellar Lumens (XLM), Zcash (ZEC) and 0x (ZRX).
In August, the exchange added Great Britain Pound (GBP) support for its UK-based customers, enabling faster payments with same day deposits and withdrawals from Coinbase to British bank accounts. They previously had to convert funds from pounds to Euros and vice versa to buy and sell digital currency.
Coinbase is reportedly looking to create a crypto exchange-traded fund (ETF) to allow retail investors to gain access to the volatile cryptocurrency market with the help from the US$6 trillion Wall Street giant and an asset manager BlackRock's blockchain working group for the same.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong is bullish on cryptocurrency markets even as they are going through turbulence in recent times. Armstrong expects over a billion people to become a part of the crypto ecosystem over the next five years.