Coinbase is getting ready to expand its cryptocurrency offering after a new acquisition

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase is looking to circumvent regulatory hurdles and add new coins to its portfolio with the acquisition of Paradex, a service which allows users to trade cryptocurrencies without relying on a trusted third party. 

Paradex, which launched in beta in January 2018, is a so-called relayer built on top of the 0x platform. This means it provides users with a way to trade ERC20 tokens — a large ecosystem of cryptocurrencies built on top of Ethereum — directly from their digital wallets. 

This is an important move for Coinbase, which is the top U.S. cryptocurrency exchange with more than 20 million customer accounts and $20 billion in crypto-assets. The exchange currently lists only four cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash. Despite customer demand for more (there are thousands of cryptocurrencies out there, 23 of them with a market cap of over $1 billion), Coinbase has been wary of adding new coins due to regulatory pressure from the SEC, which (possibly) sees many of these as unregulated and unregistered securities.  Read more...