Popular US crypto exchange Coinbase has just enabled full support for trading Zcash (ZEC), a privacy-focused cryptocurrency with a market valuation of over $175 million. The token is now available on the exchange’s professional Trading Platform , Coinbase Pro (formerly GDAX), while the company’s Android and iOS apps to follow later.
In a blog post and tweet, officials revealed the launch would take place in four vital stages including transfer-only, post-only, limit-only, and the final stage, full-trading mode. Coinbase will post tweets announcing the stages separately.
Coinbase will open trading of ZEC around 12 hours after the announcement was made. The exchange points out that Zcash will be accessible for users in most jurisdictions, but will not initially be available for residents of the state of New York.
The company has had a string of recent announcements in a major push to attract crypto traders and grow its user base. The news came amid long-standing speculation that Coinbase, which is the most popular trading service the U.S., would add new assets.
While announcing the news, Coinbase also noted the platform’s commitment to complying with the standards set by the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYSDFS), saying: “ ZEC trading will initially be accessible for Coinbase Pro users in the US (excluding NY), UK, European Union, Canada, Singapore and Australia. Additional jurisdictions may be added at a later date.”
Zcash Would Happen Slowly and in Stages
While other exchanges offer a wider selection of Cryptocurrencies to trade, Coinbase has elected to proceed cautiously while regulators evaluate the legal status of the new currencies.
As usual, when the listing of a new coin on a major exchange is announced, there was a significant increase in the trading volume of Zcash and a big price spike.
At the time of writing this article, the announcement was only a few hours old — but there was already a strong increase in ZEC price following Coinbase news. The token saw a massive spike from $80 to trade currently around $93.5 up nearly 15 percent during the day. Still, ZEC is still five times lower off the peak it hit earlier in February at $499 and is currently ranked 19th based on market capitalization.
The latest addition comes as no surprise as the popular San Francisco exchange crafted a new asset listing policy earlier this year after getting itself into hot water when its added Bitcoin Cash to its platform. Coinbase said it took measures to ensure insiders did not have an early opportunity to trade on the news.
