Coinbase to add Ethereum Classic to exchange within months
Coinbase intends to add support to Ethereum Classic to its exchange "in the coming months."
Featured
The cryptocurrency exchange said on Monday that the engineering work required to support the trade Ethereum Classic (ETC) is due to begin soon, and customers can expect to soon see public-facing APIs which will indicate the addition of the asset.
In a blog post, Coinbase added that the final testing phases are expected to take place in the next few months.
A formal launch date will be announced closer to the time that ETC joins the platform.
"When we reach the final testing of the technical integration, we will announce a date that customers on Pro and Prime can begin placing limit orders on the Ethereum Classic order book on Coinbase Markets," Coinbase says. "Once that resting market reaches sufficient liquidity, we will then enable trading."
See also: Apple bans developers from submitting cryptocurrency mining apps for iOS devices
As the news broke, the price of ETC, an alternative cryptocurrency to Ethereum (ETH) created during hard fork of the Ethereum network in July 2016, surged by over 20 percent.
At the time of writing, the price of ETC has reached $15.58.
Ethereum Classic is based on the original Ethereum blockchain. The fork was created due to the DAO smart contract hacking incident, which split the community between ETC and what is now known as ETH.
According to Coinbase, the Custody service will add support for deposits and withdrawals of ETC, and Coinbase Markets will be given trading support.
However, the company's trading rules require ETC books to be open in post-only for at least one hour, and if liquidity is established, then trading will be expanded to Pro and Prime.
The new asset will also be listed on Coinbase Asset Management, and the Coinbase Index Fund will rebalance to include ETC.
TechRepublic: Ethereum: A cheat sheet for professionals
Coinbase has previously announced plans to support the Ethereum ERC20 technical standard for tokens, as well as Bitcoin forks.
The new standard will allow the platform to adopt ERC20 token contracts and products potentially including EOS, Tronix, and ICON. Coinbase says the addition will "pave the way for supporting ERC20 assets across Coinbase products in the future," and this, too, is expected to appear in a matter of months.
CNET: Want to buy stuff using bitcoin? Coinbase wants to help
Top tips for investing in cryptocurrency
Previous and related coverage
- South Korean cryptocurrency exchange hack sees $40m in altcoin stolen
- The risky business of bitcoin: High-profile cryptocurrency catastrophes of 2017
- Cryptocurrency trading app Taylor says all funds have been stolen in cyberattack