One of the leading bitcoin exchanges has expanded its bitcoin buying feature to Canada and Singapore, following the launch of the service in Australia.
Coinbase has announced that its customers in Singapore and Canada will be able to instantly acquire ether and bitcoin using their debit and credit cards.
According to the blog post, its Canadian users will not be able to sell the digital currency, but the company is currently working towards making the option available there. Meantime, Coinbase informed its users that it will no longer support CAD services in Canada, following the closure of its payments services provider Vogogo.
On Tuesday, Coinbase unveiled that it extended the same service to its Australian users. Like in Canada, customers in Australia cannot yet sell the digital currency.
To make a purchase of bitcoin or ether, users need to select the “Buy” or “Sell” option in the app, add a debit or credit card and acquire the virtual currency.
With the latest expansion, Coinbase’s services become available in 33 countries. Meantime, Singapore is the first Asian country where the exchange exists.
In May, the company announced that it added ether trading to its exchange platform and rebranded itself as the Global Digital Asset Exchange. Two months after launching the trading of ether, it integrated this digital currency and enabled users to buy, sell and trade ether on their Coinbase accounts. According to the company, it is in plans to add more virtual currencies in the future.
In June, Coinbase announced it began accepting PayPal for bitcoin selling and credit cards for bitcoin buying. Users can now sell the digital currency and have the money deposited in their PayPal wallets. The option is available for customers only in the US, but the exchange is going to launch the feature in more countries as well.
International Expansion
Established in 2012, Coinbase has become one of the most popular cryptocurrency companies within the bitcoin industry. The firm has recently secured a $10.5 million investment from a Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ (BTMU), Mitsubishi UFJ Capital (MUCAP) and Sozo Ventures as part of the international expansion strategy.
The funding brought Coinbases’s total investment to $116 million. Its earlier investors include venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson, the New York Stock Exchange, banking giant BBVA Ventures, and Andreessen Horowitz.
BTMU, which is the biggest bank in Japan, is going to work with Coinbase to drive its further expansion. Although Coinbase operates an exchange in Japan, it doesn’t provide its services in the country yet. However, the company acknowledges the importance of the Japanese market and its role in the future development of cryptocurrencies.
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