By
Chimamanda U. Martha
April 25th, 2024
The rebranding of GDAX will make trading experience more easy and intuitive, while integrating the Paradex platform will give customers access to more digital currencies.
Coinbase, one of the most popular and the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the U.S, has now announced the purchase of an Ethereum startup service called Paradex, which will allow customers to trade in hundreds of digital tokens directly with one another.
Coinbase described Paradex as “a sophisticated and secure relay platform that will allow our customers to trade hundreds of tokens directly from their wallets.” The Paradex service currently employees 10 people and is developed using a protocol called 0x, that provides customers a gateway to access to less known digital currencies. The deal is done for some undisclosed amount.
Brian Armstrong, CEO and founder of the Coinbase cryptocurrency exchange, sees the acquisition as reinforcing “Coinbase’s commitment to investing in decentralized infrastructure and participating in the nascent world of wallet-to-wallet trading.”
“Our team couldn’t be more proud of the work we’ve accomplished over the past year. And we couldn’t be more excited about this new chapter under the Coinbase umbrella,” said Paradex CEO, Ron Bernstein in a statement.
On Wednesday, May 23, the company also announced the rebranding of GDAX exchange to Coinbase Pro. The new Coinbase Pro has been specifically designed for the individual digital currency traders, and according to the company, this new service was launched to suit the needs of this vary group. As stated in their official blog post, some of the salient features of the new Coinbase Pro service include:
- Automatic transfer of all transactions and balances from GDAX to Coinbase Pro;
- A completely redesigned platform that will make the trading experience easier and more intuitive;
- Simplified deposit and withdrawal processes;
- Improved charts that will allow customers to easily scroll and access historical data;
- A new consolidated portfolio view called “My Wallets” that lets customers easily see an overview of their account orders and balances.
The company plans to integrate the Paradex platform with the Coinbase Pro, which will allow all the Coinbase users trade “hundreds of tokens directly from their wallets” without the exchange in middle. As a result, Coinbase customers will get access to several other digital currencies. Currently, Coinbase offers its customers to trade only four digital currencies – Bitcoin, Ethereum Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin on its platform.
Asiff Hirji, Coinbase president and chief operating officer told CNBC’s “Fast Money” that the company is willing to list “as many assets as possible”, however, it is yet to get proper guidance following its discussion with the regulators. Hirji said:
“As soon as there is more clarity we will list them as long as they adhere to our framework. But clarity is needed and I don’t think we’re close to that, unfortunately.”
The blog post also goes to mention that the new service will be first available to customers outside the U.S. The company states:
“After making some product enhancements, we’ll initially offer this experience to customers outside the U.S., and eventually to U.S. customers after we implement changes.”
Till the 29th of June, 2018, Coinbase Pro and GDAX will operate in tandem, but then “all customers will be seamlessly rolled over” to the new platform.