Coinbase, the United States-based crypto exchange which used to support exclusively Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BTH), Litecoin (LTC) and Ethereum (ETH), announced on 7 December 2018 that the company is exploring the possibility of supporting another 31 new cryptocurrencies after already having 5 new additions in the year 2018.

Based on their blog post, they said:

“We are continuing to explore the addition of new assets and will be working with local banks and regulators to add them in as many jurisdictions as possible”.

They further added that they intend to achieve their goal of granting their customers “access to greater than 90% of all compliant digital assets by market cap”.

The full list of cryptocurrencies that are said to be ‘explored’ can be found in their newest blogpost, but the one that catches the most attention would most probably be Ripple (XRP), which is said to be the second-largest cryptocurrency at the time being. This gives hope to Ripple investors that were mostly disappointed when Coinbase suggested earlier this year that Ripple did not have the required regularity clarity to be added to their line of cryptocurrencies supported. Some other cryptocurrencies ‘explored’ by the company which names may be recognized by most areCardano (ADA),EOS (EOS), Stellar (XLM) and Tezos (XTZ).

Their post emphasized that a significant amount of exploratory work is needed to add new digital assets, whether it’s from a compliance or a technical standpoint, and thus they cannot guarantee all the evaluated assets will be ultimately listed for trading. They also hinted that their listing process may cause some of the ‘explored’ cryptocurrencies to not be fully supported. For instance, some of the added assets will not be able to be sent or received using a local wallet and instead users will only be allowed to participate in their buy and sell.

The announcement Coinbase made is surprising considering how cryptocurrencies are not doing their best in 2018. It can be interpreted as a move to support their new listing process which was revealed in September that would allow additions of digital assets that were compliant with local regulations at a faster pace.

Thus, it is difficult to predict which ‘explored’ cryptocurrencies will be ‘listed’ in the end, and when will they make their way onto the major exchange’s platforms likeCoinbase Pro or Coinbase.com.