U.S.-based ‘crypto’ exchange Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN) is considering adding another 50 tokens to its trading list in an apparent bid to boost both its share price and venture capital exit liquidity.
On April 11, Coinbase released a list of 50 tokens “under consideration for listing” in the current quarter ending June 30. The bulk of these are ERC-20 tokens on the Ethereum network, while five are SPL tokens on the Solana network.
The former group includes some familiar names, such as stablecoins issued by Binance (BUSD) and Gemini (GUSD), as well as the BitDAO project’s BIT token. But there’s also some truly left-field choices, some of which were released four years ago and pretty much sank without a trace. It’s enough to crane one’s neck in search of the vendor yelling “Program! Program! Can’t tell the shitcoin without a program!”
There was a point in the not too distant past when the cryptocurrency exchange was far more cautious in choosing which tokens to list, a stance perhaps dictated by the exchange’s decision to remain based in the U.S., where regulators continue to view the digital asset sector with suspicion.
But a new regime arrived during Coinbase’s Q1 2021 earnings call when CEO Brian Armstrong said “we need to accelerate the process by which we review assets and we add them to the site.” Whereas the previous decision to list was based on a token having “reached some substantial scale,” the new plan was to “be first to list…
