Coinbase Has Just Added ZRX, Its First ERC-20 Token

Making good on a promise it made back in March of this year, Coinbase has just added its first ERC-20 token. ZRX, the token of the 0x (pronounced “zero x”) protocol began trading on Coinbase Pro (formerly GDAX), the exchange’s professional trading platform, on October 11, 2018.  

“Once sufficient liquidity is established, trading will begin on the ZRX/USD, ZRX/EUR and ZRX/BTC order books. ZRX trading will be accessible for users in most jurisdictions, but will not initially be available for residents of the state of New York,” Coinbase Pro general manager David Farmer wrote in a blog post spelling out the details of the launch.

Coinbase said trading of ZRX would happen slowly and in stages. “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 state for a longer period of time, or suspend trading…” Farmer wrote. Per the exchange’s policy, new coin trades on Coinbase Pro first. The exchange said it would make a future announcement when ZRX began trading on coinbase.com and the Coinbase mobile apps.

Last year, the popular San Francisco exchange crafted a strict new asset listing policy after getting itself into hot water when a botched bitcoin cash (BCH) listing led to accusations of insider trading.  

A lot has changed for Coinbase since. At one point during the crypto bubble, the exchange boasted a user base of 13 million. Following December 2017, however, Bitcoin lost more than 60 percent of its value, a loss that has cut into Coinbase’s business. In fact, Bloomberg reports that the number of U.S. customers buying and selling on Coinbase has declined by 80 percent.

Amidst all of this, Coinbase has been working diligently to expand its offerings.

A year ago, the exchange carried only three coins: bitcoin (BTC), ethereum (ETH) and litecoin (LTC). That changed when it added support for bitcoin cash (BCH) in December of 2017. In March 2018, the exchange announced plans for a crypto index fund available only to accredited investors. And in June 2018, the same month it launched its index fund, Coinbase added a fifth digital asset: Ethereum Classic (ETC).

Efforts to add new coins continued from there. In July 2018, Coinbase announced it was exploring several new assets. One of those was ZRX (newly listed); the others were Cardano (ADA), basic attention token (BAT), Stellar Lumen (XLM) and Zcash (ZEC). And in September, the exchange announced “Coinbase Bundle,” a product for the average investor.

Last month, Coinbase even announced a new asset listing process by which anyone with a token can apply to have that token listed on the platform.

Most recently, Coinbase told The Block on October 12, 2018, it was shutting down its index fund aimed at wealthy investors, due to lack of interest.