Coinbase has introduced a new feature to lure investors to cryptos
US-based cryptocurrency exchange operator Coinbase has announced it will add a new feature, dubbed Coinbase Bundles, that will allow users to purchase a weighted basket of the five cryptos it lists — Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, and Ethereum Classic.
This will essentially serve as a starter pack for new or casual investors; instead of having to decide what digital assets to purchase, they can buy a “basket” of them, with the cryptos weighted by market capitalisation at time of purchase. Bundles begin at $US25 (and €25 or £25 for customers in Europe and the UK, respectively).
Coinbase Bundles is the latest effort by the firm to expand its reach. Although the company currently lists only a handful of the biggest cryptos, last week, it announced a major listing policy shift that will see it increase its digital asset offerings substantially.
Together with this new policy, the bundles product makes a lot of sense, as additional cryptos will likely be added as they join the platform, enabling investors to get wider exposure to the market without actively trading. The $US8 billion firm has already introduced similar index funds feature for its institutional investors looking to for exposure to a broad range of crypto assets. These changes will likely open up the platform’s ecosystem to a much wider institutional and non-institutional investor base.
As a result, Coinbase should become more competitive globally. Despite the company’s continued efforts to attract institutional investors, Coinbase Pro, Coinbase’s professional trading arm, is only number 14 on the list of top 100 exchanges by volume, which is led by Binance, the Malta-based exchanged initially founded in China, per Coinmarketcap.
As it continues to try to attract high-value traders into a crypto space plagued by a plethora of legitimacy issues, this latest move should allow Coinbase to better compete with the biggest exchanges globally. By attracting more users into its ecosystem, the firm can grow its addressable market for future products it launches, while simultaneously making itself more attractive to large investors.
Originally published at www.businessinsider.com.au on October 1, 2018.
