A non-official statement has been made by Coinbase’s Adam White who says that the exchange will be rebranded soon, as it will start supporting ether.

The company’s vice president of business development explained that the exchange has been focused on bitcoin as the most popular digital currency, but while other cryptocurrencies are emerging, the company seeks to take them into account, too.

"In addition to better highlighting the exchange that Coinbase is becoming we’re rebranding as GDAX, which stands for Global Digital Asset Exchange," White said in an interview to CoinDesk.

But it still does not mean that the exchange is going “to add 15 new currencies over the coming weeks,” according to White.

Back in 2013, Coinbase was listed No 2 in the Time’s Top-10 of business startups and since then it has become a prominent bitcoin wallet and exchange platform. Its funding round in 2015 raised $75 mln.

As for the ether currency, Coinbase team is reported to have been in contact with Ethereum’s creator Vitalik Buterin for a long time, taking part in numerous Ethereum meetups and becoming more familiar with the currency through research and experiment. As the interest to ether voiced by Coinbase users was “unprecedented”, the decision was not hard to take.

The official announcement on both the rebranding and ether support is expected to come later this week.

Last month, Coinbase introduced debit card support, allowing users to buy bitcoins not only on the exchange via a credit card and corresponding bank account but also via a debit card, the practice becoming increasingly popular, especially among the US citizens. Coinbase CEO believes that, as the share of speculative investment in the exchange’s transactions is decreasing while that of the payment network is growing, digital currencies are sure to become a real payment instrument in the foreseeable future.

Maria Rudina