Coinbase VP Says Institutional Interest in the Crypto Market is Becoming ‘More Profound’

Institutional investor interest in the cryptocurrency space is becoming more widespread and is helping to drive the market, according to the vice president and general manager of Coinbase.

Adam White was speaking to CNBC’s ‘Fast Money‘ yesterday when he made his comments. According to him, what’s interesting about this is the fact that retail investors were initially driving the industry. However, throughout 2017 the San Francisco-based crypto exchange saw increasing interest from institutional investors to the market, he added.

“[The] institutional conversations have become more and more profound,” White said.

Last Friday, Coinbase revealed that it was “exploring” the addition of five altcoins to the platform. However, in a blog post, the exchange added a caveat:

“…these assets will require additional exploratory work and we cannot guarantee they will be listed for trading. Furthermore, our listing process may result in some of these assets being listed solely for customers to buy and sell, without the ability to send or receive using a local wallet.”

The five coins it is considering are Cardano (ADA), Basic Attention Token (BAT), Stellar Lumens (XLM), Zcash (ZEC), and 0x (ZRX). At present, Coinbase lists Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and BCH.

“We have a long-term vision for the space,” White said. “And we are focused on building the exchange, the wallet, the custodian, that allows capital to move into the space.”

This is just one of the many changes that have been reported on at the exchange in the first seven months of 2018. In March, the company announced that it was intending to add support for the ERC20 technical standard.

This was followed up with the news that the company was rebranding its GDAX platform to Coinbase Pro. Specifically designed for individual traders, the aim is to provide a trading experience that is easier and more intuitive, as it simplifies the funds flow process. It has also acquired Paradex, a token trade rely platform, which allows users to trade ERC20 tokens and acts as a relay platform for transfers.

Due to increasing demand from Asian investors, Coinbase revealed last month that it was setting up a office in Japan as it continues to build an open financial system for the world. According to the company this “will lay the foundation for Japan’s crypto investors to access a range of Coinbase’s products.” Notably, this comes at a time when fellow San Francisco-based crypto exchange Kraken said that it was halting trading services in the Japanese nation due to rising costs.

June also saw a statement from Coinbase declaring that it was on track to list SEC-regulated crypto securities, pending approval from federal authorities. Yesterday, it was announced that the company had been given the green light to list coins deemed as securities.

After the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) approved Coinbase’s purchase of Keystone Capital Corp., Venovate Marketplace Inc., and Digital Wealth LLC, it will be able to offer security tokens. This move makes it the first federally regulated company for trading crypto coins deemed as securities.

It has also started accepting deposits for its Coinbase Custody service, a new offering that aims to provide secure storage of crypto assets for institutions in both the U.S. and Europe.