Coinbase announces support for ERC20 Ethereum tokens
Coinbase plans to support the Ethereum ERC20 technical standard for tokens in the coming months.
Featured
The technical standard will allow the cryptocurrency exchange to support ERC20 assets and Ethereum tokens in the future, paving the way for the adoption of new ERC20 token contracts and products potentially including EOS, Tronix, ICON, VeChain, and Bytom.
On Monday, Coinbase said in a blog post that the move "paves the way for supporting ERC20 assets across Coinbase products in the future."
However, Coinbase has not revealed what specific assets or features will be supported and stressed that any additions will have to go through internal legal and risk checks, as well as gain approval by a committee of employees and executives using the Digital Asset Framework (.PDF).
In addition, any new assets will be made public prior to integration on the platform.
ERC20 is a popular standard for the creation of interoperable contracts. Native support for ERC20 is already integrated into the Coinbase wallet system, Toshi, which supports both ERC20 tokens and ERC721 assets.
Support for ERC20 will first have to appear on GDAX. Coinbase is being very cautious and says the firm will wait for "additional regulatory clarity" before deciding which assets based on the standard will be supported.
This is likely due to past accusations of insider trading after the Bitcoin Cash fiasco.
After listing on GDAX, Coinbase will select assets to offer on the main platform.
"Coinbase will only list assets after they are listed on GDAX," the company says. "After evaluating factors such as liquidity, price stability, and other market health metrics, we may choose to add any ERC20 asset added to GDAX to the Coinbase platform."
However, just because an asset is present on GDAX does not mean that it will appear on the main Coinbase platform.
See also: IRS victory: Coinbase to hand over 14,000 user records, transaction data
This standard and support may also be added to other products, but there is no planned support for ERC20 on Coinbase Commerce.
Earlier this month, Coinbase announced its intention to create an index fund for cryptocurrency asset management.
The Coinbase Index Fund, managed by subsidiary Coinbase Asset Management, will "give investors exposure to all digital assets listed on Coinbase's exchange, GDAX, weighted by market capitalization."
When new assets are added to the platform, they will be automatically added to the fund.