By
Temitope Olatunji
April 18th, 2024
Coinbase makes it clear that it still stands by the earlier decision of the “committee of internal experts” to not add Ripple to its platform, at the moment.
Digital currency Ripple witnessed an unprecedented run-up last year after announcements pouring in from different corners of the world about several banks and other financial services providers testing Ripple’s blockchain technology at their end. Ripple kicked of the year 2018 in style with its price trading above $3. However, with a major correction hitting the overall crypto-markets Ripple’s price has corrected to around $1 and has been seen consolidating at this point for quite some time now.
Earlier this week, there were rumors of the popular U.S exchange ‘Coinbase’ planning to add Ripple to its platform and make it available to its customers for trading. The rumor floated amidst the reports that Ripple’s chief executive Brad Garlinghouse is going to appear along with Coinbase chief operating officer and president Asiff Hirji on a special episode of CNBC’s “Fast Money” program on March 6. Following the rumors, Ripple’s price jumped by a whopping 20% on Monday, March 5th, where the cryptocurrency was seen trading at $1.08.
However, putting all these rumors to rest, Coinbase has recently announced on its Twitter handle that it doesn’t hold any such plans at the moment and all such rumors should be avoided. Coinbase stated that the decision made by a “committee of internal experts” earlier this year in January, of not adding Ripple to its platform, hasn’t changed.
Our January 4th, 2018 statement continues to stand: we have made no decision to add additional assets to either GDAX or Coinbase.
Any statement to the contrary is untrue and not authorized by the company. https://t.co/X04oN6BcGp
— Coinbase (@coinbase) March 5, 2018
Soon after Coinbase has made things clear, Ripple has corrected by over 4.5% from its yesterday’s high, and currently, at the press time, the cryptocurrency is trading at $0.963, according to the data on CoinMarketCap.
Coinbase is currently willing to play it completely safe especially after the cryptocurrency exchange facing multiple lawsuits from its customers with alleged charges of insider trading by Coinbase during the surprise launch of Bitcoin Cash on its platform on December 19, 2017. Having gone through all the accusations and hassle, it would be not advisable for Coinbase to plan any such surprise launch of Ripple, as it can possibly trigger another controversy.
Overall Cryptocurrency Markets In a Consolidation Phase, Experts Believe Good Time to Buy
While looking to the crypto markets in totality, this situation is not just limited to Ripple. Majority of the cryptocurrencies are seen correcting over the last 24 hours with Bitcoin also correcting minorly after surging past $11,500 mark. After a major correction last month, the crypto markets, in general, have shown a good recovery and is seen currently consolidating around the $450 billion market cap. Many experts believe that this could be a good time to enter considering the long-term future.
While commenting on last year’s unprecedented rise of the crypto markets, Evercoin co-founder Miko Matsumura said: “The market before was clearly overheated. The only fear in the market was fear of missing out.” This speculation was successful in driving a huge inrush of investors to the market finally resulting in price inflation.
Matsumura, however, believes that the crypto market is currently in a consolidation phase and is stabilizing at the moment after a huge correction. He also says that the current situation can also provide a window of opportunity for future gains. “I do think there are a number of people in a state of panic, which is unfortunate, but for every new person who panics, there are a number of people who are comfortable with 50% drops and more who are either holding or seeing it as a buying opportunity.”
Moreover, other experts have been pressing on the need of proper regulatory measures in order to have a systematic approach towards the further growth of digital currencies. Thomas Glucksman of Gatecoin says “Increasing regulatory recognition of cryptocurrency exchanges, the entrance of institutional capital and major technology developments will contribute to the market’s rebound and push cryptocurrency prices to all new highs this year.”
On the other hand, Dager Contreras, co-founder of Ocular, believes that new developments with the scalability thereby ensuring blockchain security simultaneously will make investors feel safer while investing in digital assets. He explained: “As exchanges and wallets continue to improve their security measures, which include stronger KYC (know your customers) and AML (anti-money laundering) systems. Investors may feel safer knowing that the likelihood of being hacked is reduced.”