Like many other exchanges, Coinbase has been focusing on decentralized finance (DeFi) over the past few months. The rise of decentralized exchange platforms such as Uniswap has begun to eat at the market share of these centralized exchanges.
While Coinbase listed coins such as Compound and Uniswap, though, there was a lack of grassroots projects that many in the space loved. Namely, users and investors looking to reap the benefits of centralized exchanges were hoping the company would list DeFi household names Aave (AAVE) and Synthetix Network Token (SNX).
Today, this finally happened.
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Coinbase Lists Top DeFi Coins
This afternoon, Coinbase revealed that it would be rolling out support on its “Pro” platform for DeFi coins AAVE, Bancor (BNT), and SNX:
“Starting today, inbound transfers for AAVE, BNT and SNX are now available in the regions where trading is supported. Traders cannot place orders and no orders will be filled. Trading will begin on or after 9AM PT on Tuesday December 15, if liquidity conditions are met.”
Starting today, inbound transfers for AAVE, BNT and SNX are now available in the regions where trading is supported. Traders cannot place orders and no orders will be filled. Trading will begin on or after 9AM PT on Tuesday December 15, if liquidity conditions are met. pic.twitter.com/TFS08obL9z
— Coinbase Pro (@CoinbasePro) December 14, 2020
The DeFi coins listed by the exchange immediately spiked.
AAVE rallied from the $86 range to highs on $92 on top exchanges while SNX saw an instant 10% bump. The two DeFi cryptocurrencies were briefly the top performers in the top 40 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization.
BNT also surged higher. BNT is up 24% in the past 24 hours, nearly pushing into the top 100 crypto assets by market capitalization in this latest rally.
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Can’t Regulate This Away
Some fears have been shared that DeFi is going to get regulated away.
Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase, for instance, recently said:
“Last week we heard rumors that the U.S. Treasury and Secretary Mnuchin were planning to rush out some new regulation regarding self-hosted crypto wallets before the end of his term. I’m concerned that this would have unintended side effects, and wanted to share those concerns.”
But according to SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce, some innovation in the space should be protected:
“As this technology gains adoption outside and now inside the legacy financial system, we should figure out a way to embrace the personal liberty principles undergirding it. If we were instead to steamroll the technology’s liberty-enhancing features under the weight of regulation, we would lose a lot of the power of the new technology to afford opportunities to people whose autonomy has previously been curbed by, for example, limited access to the traditional financial system, geographic location, social standing, or subjection to a repressive government.”
Many fear that too much regulation against stablecoins and self-hosted wallets could cause DeFi to lose traction.
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Featured Image from Shutterstock Price tags: aaveusd, snxusd, aavebtc, snxbtc, bntusd, bntbtc Charts from TradingView.com AAVE and SNX Surge Higher as Coinbase Finally Adds the DeFi Coins