Do you believe in Santa Claus? If you do, you probably believe that Coinbase will add Ripple (XRP).

November 17, 2018

Coinbase Custody, the last launched service in the slew of solution crypto giant offers, added support for XRP. This revived the exhausting rumor of XRP to Coinbase even though there is no sign that XRP is coming to the Coinbase Pro or Basic any time soon. What could be behind two of the biggest fiat to crypto gateways, Coinbase and Circle, declining to list the world’s 2nd biggest crypto?

Coinbase Custody is a new service launched by Coinbase related to storing crypto, where it allows ‘Digital Asset Custody For Institutions’. e.g. it allows crypto hedge funds, exchanges and ICOs to store their crypto within Coinbase. Prior to the release of this, and similar products, storing very large amounts of crypto securely has been difficult, with many exchanges and ICOs being hacked and their funds stolen. This offers these exchanges/ICOs a place to store their crypto safely, and under the custody of Coinbase.

An important feature of Coinbase Custody is that it’s regulated, more specifically it’s partnered with ETC(Electronic Transaction Clearing), which is an “SEC-registered broker-dealer and FINRA member subject to regulated financial reporting and independent audits”.

Does this imply that XRP listing on Coinbase Basic is imminent? Not really – the Custody service is completely separate from other services and will list tokens more faster and offer more tokens than the retail platform.

Will this move the needle for XRP? Probably not – market is in a doldrum and this type of news don’t make any noticeable shift in price or general sentiment.

Why do XRP holders care about Coinbase listing?

This market is dead right now and people are looking for catalysts, such as listing their token on Coinbase. Acceptance and ease of access is everything in the crypto world. The easier it is to buy something, the more demand will increase, which, in turn, increases value. Coinbase makes it simple for non-technically minded people to invest in cryptocurrencies using fiat. A number of analysts have already speculated that one of the world’s largest exchanges, servicing 32 countries, will be adding Ripple shortly.

Why does Coinbase ignore XRP?

BraveNewCoin wrote about this back in August and their top 3 reasons for this are:

Incompatible ideologies – Amongst the devout advocates of decentralization, distaste for XRP has become commonplace. Along with infuriating the diehards, some aspects of this structure have prevented the cryptocurrency from infiltrating the top exchanges, even with an incentive. Ripple reportedly offered Coinbase a loan of over $100 million in XRP in exchange for a listing, but this wasn’t enough to sway them.
Decentralization – One of the key principles cited by Coinbase is decentralization—that the network should be “public, decentralized and enable trustless consensus.” Despite Ripple’s adamant claims that XRP is fully decentralised, this is widely contested within the community, as the company arguably exercise singular control over the XRP ledger.
Regulation – Should XRP be classified as security, it would likely become very unattractive to cryptocurrency exchanges at present—as both securities and the exchanges that offer them are subject to significantly stricter regulations.