US crypto exchange Coinbase wants to be more transparent about which cryptocurrencies could be relisted. Critics think that Coinbase puts mass before class and provides questionable tokens with an audience.
The so-called Coinbase effect is well known among investors: When the global US crypto exchange adds cryptocurrencies to its offerings, they can expect strong positive impulses for their price curve. For example, when Shiba Inu (SHIB), often derided as a meme coin, was newly listed on Coinbase, there was an 11 percent increase in one hour and even a 38 percent increase by the next day. Now Coinbase announces via a message to take care of more transparency for new listings. This is probably also intended to forestall critics who quickly think of insider trading in the Coinbase effect and worry about how Coinbase actually selects which coins come into the portfolio.
Exactly 50 cryptocurrencies, according to the official data, Coinbase has on a list of coins that are being discussed for possible listing in the current Q2 2022. And except for BUSD, the cryptocurrencies listed are all second-tier coins. Cobie from the crypto channel “Up Only” takes a closer look at some of the cryptocurrencies on Twitter, which may hope for the Coinbase effect. He draws two conclusions from this: The Coinbase effect has often already set in – just by being mentioned on the list, which, however, is no guarantee for a real new listing. In some cases, there must have been massive insider trading in the potential new listings.
More importantly, however, as Cobie notes: Coinbase seems to be considering pretty much any coin for listing as of late, softening its previously known stricter rules. A coin like Big Data Protocol (BDP) with a market cap of just a few million U.S. dollars has no business being on Coinbase, he says. CoinMarketCap lists Big Data Protocol on the market capitalization ordered ranking of the most important cryptocurrencies on position 1170. With Polychain Monsters (PMON) (formerly Polkamon) – ranking position 864 – Cobie reminds of a presumed pump-and-dump of insiders from 2021. And with Student Coin (STC) – still position 720 – Cobie simply shows the crash of the price curve and says: Only the Coinbase team knows what should be interesting about the Student Coin.
Conclusion: Is Coinbase endangering its serious reputation with new listings?
Observers have long been bothered by the fact that Coinbase is listing more and more weakly capitalized coins. Here, price curves can be noticeably influenced with just a few million US dollars, regardless of what the projects have to deliver in terms of content. However, Coinbase has also created an “Experimental” category, under which many of the aforementioned coins are likely to fall and which should probably serve as a warning sign. This is because Coinbase has witnessed how rival Binance broadens its portfolio by relisting pretty much all of the new tokens, thus gaining customers. Nevertheless, Coinbase has to ask itself whether it wants to take the risk of damaging its image with questionable new listings. Cobie sums up ironically: Coinbase continues to list “dead shitcoins” a year after they die.
Leave a Reply