In brief
- Coinbase is rolling out decentralized exchange trading on its app.
- Digital tokens previously available on decentralized exchanges will now be available on the app.
- The San Francisco-based firm has made six acquisitions this year as it aims to expand its services.
Coinbase will offer decentralized exchange trading for U.S. customers, the crypto exchange giant announced on Friday.
The feature will mean that new tokens previously only available via decentralized platforms will be available via Coinbase’s mobile app. The feature won’t be available for New York State-based users.
New digital coins and tokens are frequently minted—including via Coinbase’s Base network—and the exchange said it wants to make them available more quickly on its app. The exchange will first allow tokens minted on Base before rolling out support for Solana.
“Every day, more tokens are launched on Base than anywhere else,” the exchange said. “Coinbase isn’t just building for traders to access them—we’re also empowering the builders creating them.”
It added: “This means you do not have to wait for a traditional listing to get access to Coinbase’s distribution. For retail users, it means earlier access to new tokens. For Base builders, it unlocks seamless retail distribution directly through the Coinbase app.”
Base is an Ethereum scaling network, created by Coinbase, that allows developers to build new crypto products.
A decentralized exchange—of DEX—is a platform that lets users trade digital coins or tokens directly. Unlike major crypto exchanges like Coinbase or Binance, anyone can execute trades on a DEX because the platforms do not ask for customer information like name, address, or ID from traders—information required by most know-your-customer financial regulations.
In a Friday post on the social media platform X, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said that the move was part of the firm’s push to become an “everything exchange.” Coinbase, which went public in 2021, is currently seeking approval from the SEC to introduce tokenized equities.
San Francisco-based Coinbase has also made six acquisitions this year in an effort to expand its offerings. The exchange in May announced it had made a deal to buy options exchange Deribit this year for $2.9 billion.
Coinbase’s stock (NASDAQ: COIN) was trading 2% lower on Friday at nearly $304 per share. This week, it has shed nearly 5% of its value. It is down about 38% since reaching its all-time high last month near $420.
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