Coinbase announced today that it has rolled out support designed for its UK customers, which will see same-day completion on deposits and withdrawals from Coinbase, Coinbase Pro and Coinbase Prime accounts.

British customers should be delighted as transaction speeds to and from accounts have been reduced from as much as a few days to just a few hours. The announcement was made via the Coinbase blog yesterday. It will cover all four of the available cryptocurrencies listed on Coinbase.

“Until now, the process of converting bitcoin, bitcoin cash, ethereum and litecoin into euros and then into pound sterling, via international bank transfer, took several days. Customers will now be able to transfer pound sterling and use it to directly buy and sell these cryptocurrencies” writes Zeeshan Feroz, CEO of Coinbase UK, on the Coinbase blog.

This increase in speeds follows Coinbase’s success in obtaining an e-money license from the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) after opening a commercial account with the British bank Barclays. Previously, Coinbase used an Estonian account for servicing British transactions. This meant that all GBP payments were converted into euros and withdrawals converted back from euros, with customers picking up the cost of any foreign currency conversion fees.

Coinbase has also joined the “Faster Payments Scheme”, an initiative which facilitates almost instant payments from parties who provide the service.

The UK is Coinbase’s largest European market, but despite that, trade in GBP only accounts for a small fraction of global revenue. With these new transaction speeds however, this may be set to change as these new arrangements could prove an extremely inviting prospect for institutional investors. London’s already highly developed financial services infrastructure provides an element of security for investors looking for an appropriate location to offer their services from.

Further to this, Coinbase has already announced this year that it will begin to host more cryptocurrencies on its platform, increasing its appeal to the altcoin market. Back in June, Coinbase announced they would be adding Ethereum Classic the list of available currencies prompting an immediate jump in the price. With greater transaction speeds facilitated through faster payments, investors may see new opportunities to take advantage of things like arbitrage in the markets, incentivizing more money to come into the space.

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