Coinbase, a leading crypto-currency exchange platform, has made the announcement that it will be expanding its crypto to crypto trading services to 11 more countries through a statement from its official blog.
Today we welcome customers from 11 countries in Latin America and Asia to the #cryptoeconomy with crypto-to-crypto trading. Read up on the news: https://t.co/j0pxcTxzE0 pic.twitter.com/yR5rkVYjeW— Coinbase (@coinbase) April 17, 2019
This news is likely to excite a lot of would be customers who have been desirous of Coinbase services but have been unable to get any access due to their location. The addition of these new 11 jurisdictions makes it 53 countries in total, where Coinbase can be accessed and can serve.
According to the blog post, Coinbase has opened its trading doors to crypto enthusiasts residing in jurisdictions such as India, New Zealand, Mexico, South Korea, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Columbia, Peru, Chile, Argentina, and Philippines. Users in those new jurisdictions will from now hence-forth have access to Coinbase services which will see them make use of crypto-to crypto trading services. They will be able to buy and sell crypto on Coinbase pro, and Coinbase.com.
In addition, customers in these newly inducted jurisdictions will be able to buy and sell crypto-currencies via the Coinbase app which is available on both iOS and Android. The official announcement on the Coinbase blog read;
“Direct trading between cryptos is increasingly the new norm and in the last year has overtaken traditional fiat to crypto trading across the globe. Millions of Coinbase customers can now securely and quickly trade between different cryptos and send crypto off-platform at their convenience.”
The blog went on to state that the new territories that Coinbase had ventured into were part of its mission of “creating an open financial system for the world”. The write up also went on to state that the crypto space was moving from the “investment phase” into the “utility phase”, which would set the tone for the creation of new use cases.
Further elucidating on this, the blog stated;
“This could take the form of decentralized versions of traditional financial services like lending or micropayments or truly novel crypto applications that no one has even thought of yet. The ability to convert from one crypto to another will form the backbone of this new decentralized economy.”
The expansion of Coinbase activities into a country like India is both surprising and exciting, given the blocks to crypto adoption that have been put in place in the past by Reserve bank of India. The country’s top bank also went on to issue a circular warning all banks in the country not to entertain crypto transactions. The Reserve bank’s ban saw exchanges in the country such as Zebpay shut down operations.
The expansion of Coinbase services is a great thing. It means more people get exposure to cryptos easily and also more trading traffic for the exchange itself; which is never a bad thing.
Image courtesy of Coinbase.com