Coinbase made headlines Friday afternoon when it announced that it is currently exploring the addition of five new altcoins to its trading products, including Cardano (ADA), Basic Attention Token (BAT), Stellar Lumens (XLM), Zcash (ZEC) and 0x (ZRX).

Today we are announcing that we’re exploring the addition of the following assets to Coinbase: Cardano (ADA), Basic Attention Token (BAT), Stellar Lumens (XLM), Zcash (ZEC) and 0x (ZRX). https://t.co/qoECyR0V1f — Coinbase (@coinbase) July 13, 2018

In its announcement, the Coinbase team emphasized that while each digital currency is currently being considered, there is no guarantee that any will be officially listed as there may be technical limitations that hinder select coins.

While we await more information on actual listings, here’s what you need to know about the cryptocurrencies Coinbase is currently exploring.

Cardano (ADA) | Coin Price: $0.143 | Market Cap: $3.72 billion

Founding Date: 2016

Category: Smart Contract Platform

Description: Cardano is a next-generation blockchain project that features a full-fledged smart contract platform with a library of protocols for building decentralized applications (DApps). As a distributed computing platform, Cardano allows projects to conduct initial coin offerings (ICOs) and issue tokens to the public. Traxia (TMT) was the first ICO on the Cardano blockchain, raising $15.1 million worth of ADA, Bitcoin (BTC), and Ethereum (ETH).

Team: Cardano is developed by IOHK and led by former Ethereum veteran Charles Hoskinson.

Basic Attention Token (BAT) | Coin Price: $0.339 | Market Cap: $339 million

Founding Date: 2017

Category: Platform Utility Token

Description: Basic Attention Token fuels a decentralized, transparent digital ad exchange based on Ethereum Blockchain. To build this more efficient exchange, the BAT team created Brave, an open-source privacy-focused internet browser that contains a ledger system that anonymously captures user attention to accurately reward publishers with BAT tokens. Through their system, BAT offers a significant alternative for advertisers looking to improve their ROI with digital advertising campaigns while offering clear monetary incentives for both users and publishers. (more)

Team: BAT is notably lead by Brendan Eich, the creator of JavaScript and the co-founder of Mozilla/Firefox. Overall, the BAT team is impressive and has all the tools to develop BAT into a major platform.

Stellar Lumens (XLM) | Coin Price: $0.219 | Market Cap: $4.12 billion

Founding Date: 2014

Category: Smart Contract Platform

Description: Stellar is an open-source, distributed payments infrastructure that aims to connect people, payment systems, and banks with a focus on the developing world. In its current state, Stellar’s average transaction confirmation time is around three to five seconds. Additionally, Stellar’s protocol is able to conduct over 3,000 transactions per second, quickly making it a favorite platform for ICOs. (more)

Team: Stellar was created by Jed McCaleb, who also co-founded MtGox and Ripple. Notable advisors include Patrick Collison, CEO and co-founder of Stripe, and Naval Ravikant, CEO and a co-founder of AngelList.

Zcash (ZEC) | Coin Price: $176.31 | Market Cap: $766 million

Founding Date: 2016

Category: Privacy Cryptocurrency

Description: Zcash is a privacy coin that leverages zero-knowledge proofs to enable anonymous transactions. Zcash’s private transactions hide the sender, recipient, and value of transactions on the blockchain. Notably, the Winklevoss Twin-led Gemini Exchange recently became the first licensed Zcash exchange in the world, which also makes the NYSDFS the first regulatory agency in the world to supervise Zcash. (more)

Team: The Zcash Company was founded by Zooko Wilcox-O’Hearn, the current CEO. Zcash recently completed its Community Governance Panel Election, adding Amber Baldet, the former blockchain lead at JPMorgan, to its advisory board. Baldet now joins Ariann Simpsons, founder and managing director of Autonomous Partners, a fund focused on cryptocurrencies and digital assets, and Ian Miers, founding scientist of Zcash, as the newest members of the Zcash Foundation board.

0x (ZRX) | Coin Price: $1.14 | Market Cap: $612 Million

Founding Date: 2016

Category: Decentralized Exchange Protocol

Description: 0x is an open protocol that facilitates low friction peer-to-peer exchange of ERC20 tokens on the Ethereum blockchain. The 0x Protocol is aiming to become a common infrastructure for decentralized applications (DApps), enabling them to access large public liquidity pools or even create their own. This system of available liquidity allows 0x to take the concept of a decentralized exchange a step further, as traditional DEXs are illiquid, slow, expensive, and inoperable with one another. (more)

Team: 0x was co-founded by Will Warren and Amir Bandeali in October 2016 and boasts a high-powered advisory board, including Fred Ehrsam, the co-founder of Coinbase, and Joey Krug, the founder of Augur.

Final Take

Coinbase has chosen some of the most popular digital currencies in the entire industry to maybe add to their trading products. Moving forward, we can expect much of the same as the company looks to expand its offerings with quality altcoins.

Disclaimer: This article’s author has cryptocurrency holdings that can be tracked here. This article is for informational purposes only and should not be taken as investment advice. Always conduct your own due diligence before making investments.