Coinbase to Speed Up Process for Approving New Coins, Add DOGE: CEO

Coinbase, known for being particularly choosy in the cryptocurrencies it lists, has decided to be a lot more inclusive, potentially bringing in a flood of new revenue as a result.

As part of the new policy, the leading U.S. exchange will be listing meme-based cryptocurrency dogecoin in the next six to eight weeks. Coinbase sat on the sidelines this year as competing exchanges raked in untold millions in trading fees on DOGE, a cryptocurrency that was started as a joke but has exploded in popularity.

Speaking on the company's Q1 earnings call, CEO Brian Armstrong said Coinbase is also accelerating its process for listing coins to include digital assets that have just been minted. In the future the company will try to be the first exchange to list what are called “debut” coins or cryptocurrencies that have just been minted and are seeing their first day of trading volume. 

“We’re going to have to do this in the future – be the first to list a number of these coins,” CEO Brian Armstrong said.

Currently, the company evaluates cryptocurrencies based on the security of the digital asset and whether or not it could potentially be deemed a security. Coins listings like those for Internet Computer (ICP), The Graph (GRT) and Ampleforth Governance Token (FORTH) have been the first time the exchange has listed coins with no volume. Currently, there is a backlog of assets that the exchange needs to get to, and it’s working on accelerating its entire coin listing process, Armstrong added.

CORRECTION (May 14, 18:53 UTC): An earlier version of this story claimed that Coinbase had not listed debut coins. It has already listed them, but the exchange plans to be the first to list some debut coins in the future.