Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase Pro has announced that it will be adding Dash to the platform.
On Monday September 16, our DASH/USD, and DASH/BTC order books will enter transfer-only mode, accepting inbound transfers of DASH in supported regions. Orders cannot be placed or filled. Order books will be in transfer-only mode for a minimum of 12 hours. https://t.co/GsOi6nMMjf
— Coinbase Pro (@CoinbasePro) September 12, 2019
Announced this week, the major cryptocurrency exchange indicated that it would be launching Dash trading on Monday the 16th of September, beginning with Dash/USD and Dash/BTC trading pairs. However, the exchange indicated that it would not support Dash’s special features, including instant confirmations, at the beginning, but reiterated Dash’s unique governance features and impressive adoption:
“Created in 2014, Dash is a cryptocurrency optimized for payments that has optional speed and privacy features. At this time, Coinbase will not support these features. Dash is accepted at over 4,000 merchants worldwide. Its unique network architecture consists of both regular miners and privileged machines called Masternodes. Through its off-chain community governance system, anyone can submit and vote on proposals to improve the ecosystem’s functionality, utility, and adoption.”
Coinbase Pro is the cryptocurrency exchange behind the popular app Coinbase, the latter of which supports fewer assets than the underlying exchange. Coinbase has not yet announced plans to support Dash.
Coinbase Pro listing following exploration of several assets including Dash
The announcement of Dash’s impending listing on Coinbase Pro comes slightly over a month after an announcement that the platform was exploring the addition of eight new digital assets. Dash was included in this list, the highest in use and market cap by a significant margin.
Coinbase is exploring the addition of 8 new digital assets. It’s our goal to offer support for all assets that meet our standards and are compliant with local law. https://t.co/v5yzXUhbSL
— Coinbase (@coinbase) August 5, 2019
Listing on Coinbase has long been on the radar for the Dash community, as the project has a five-year history as one of the top cryptocurrencies, ranking as high as third in the market cap rankings as recently as 2017. Since then several projects ranking significantly lower have been added to the platform, leaving some to wonder if a specific element, such as a regulatory concern, impeded Dash’s addition. Some cryptocurrency exchanges, including CEX.io, have delisted Dash over concerns stemming from its optional advanced privacy features.
The former “Coinbase effect” on cryptocurrency market rankings
Addition to the Coinbase platform has long factored in as a prize achievement for cryptocurrencies, historically sparking significant increases in valuation in certain cases beyond that of addition to other competing cryptocurrency exchanges. Most famously, Litecoin was added to the platform in May of 2017, while its founder Charlie Lee served as the company’s director of engineering. Over a six-week period, the price of Litecoin rose from $3.96 to $30.29, an increase of nearly 1,000% immediately prior to, and following, the listing. This caused the project to jump significantly in the market cap rankings, and sparked accusations of conflict of interest as well as insider trading.