Coinbase is improving the trading experience for its professional traders by adding the third largest cryptocurrency by market cap, XRP, to its Coinbase Pro platform. The US crypto exchange announced the addition on Monday, February 25th.
While trading will not be enabled right away, users of the professional platform will be able to transfer XRP to the platform after 10 am on February 25th. There is an expected 12-hour delay before trading can commence, however.
XRP is one of the most discussed cryptocurrencies right now, as many critics say that the digital coin is essentially centralized and has not other benefit than being used by banks and other financial institutions for cross-border payments.
However, Coinbase has taken yet another strategic move by adding the “hot” Ripple product. Users from the US, the EU, Australia, Canada, the UK, and Singapore will be able to to trade XRP. Users from the state of New York will not have XRP support, though.
In addition, the company stated the following:
Once sufficient supply of XRP is established on the platform, trading on the XRP/USD, XRP/EUR, and XRP/BTC order books will start in phases, beginning with post-only mode and proceeding to full trading should our metrics for a healthy market be met.
Coinbase outlined the four different phases that the launch will undergo, including: transfer-only, post-only, limit-only and full trading stages.
Apart from making new additions to its platform and expanding its product portfolio, Coinbase is also making a series of strategic M&A moves that have also sparked high interest from the crypto community as what the next big steps might the US exchange take.