Coinbase, on April 26th is going live with the listing of iFinex’s contentious stablecoin, Tether. The US digital asset services entity announced last Thursday – April 22nd – that it would start taking deposits of the, controversy riddled, dollar-pegged crypto asset on it’s professionals trading platform, Coinbase Pro, and enable trading on April 26th, at 6PM, Pacific time.
The platform will list Tether-based trading pairs, and enable operation in Tether markets, for all jurisdictions that Coinbase Pro is available in. All except New York State, seeing as Tether’s parent company iFinex – along with subsidiaries, Bitfinex, and Tether – is barred from operating in, or peddling investment products to citizens of the US state of New York.
In response to calls from platform users, Coinbase Pro recently embarked on a listing spree, adding a herd of new markets to the digital asset exchange. The stablecoin listing – this being Coinbase Pro’s first stablecoin listing – follows recent listings of the “Ampleforth Governance Token (FORTH),1inch (1INCH), Enjin Coin (ENJ), NKN (NKN), Origin Token (OGN), Ankr (ANKR) Curve DAO Token (CRV), Storj (STORJ), Cardano (ADA), SushiSwap (SUSHI), Polygon (MATIC), SKALE (SKL), The Graph (GRT), Aave (AAVE), Bancor (BNT), Synthetix (SNX), Filecoin (FIL), NuCypher (NU), Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC), Balancer (BAL), Ren (REN) and Uniswap (UNI).”
The exchange’s listing fever shows no sign of abating yet, as the platform is currently considering a number of, as yet, unlisted (on Coinbase Pro) tokens. Tether, on the other hand, recently settled its quarrel with the New York Attorney General (NYAG)l, Letitia James.
“Tether’s claims that its virtual currency was fully backed by U.S. dollars at all times was a lie. These companies obscured the true risk investors faced and were operated by unlicensed and unregulated individuals and entities dealing in the darkest corners of the financial system… we’re taking action to end Bitfinex and Tether’s illegal activities in New York. These legal actions send a clear message that we will stand up to corporate greed whether it comes out of a traditional bank, a virtual currency trading platform, or any other type of financial institution.” –
New York Attorney General, Leticia James. Feb 23, 2021.
Under the above stated reasons, the New York Attorney General moved to restrict iFinex-connected entities, Tether and, digital asset exchange, Bitfinex, from performing any sort of commercial activity with the state of New York, or with New York citizens. The ban resulted from an investigation, carried out by the NYAG, into the varsity of Tether’s claims, that the stablecoin was 100% backed by cash. The regulatory authority found that, not only was Tether not backed by equal cash reserves, but that the three companies (iFinex, Bitfinex, and Tether) had colluded to cover this fact up.
What This May Mean
“Coinbase listings have the highest average return standing at 91%, but also have the widest distribution of ranging from -32% to 645%,” noted digital asset market research outfit Messari, following their analysis of the Coinbase Pump phenomenon, which sees any digital asset listed on Coinbase rallying astronomically in the few days preceding, and following the listing. Crypto data provider Coinmetrics also looked into this phenomenon and found that, although asset listings on Coinbase coincide with large price jumps, said jumps are usually in line with general market geometry.
Coinmetrics then analyzed Coinbase listings against bearish price action, and found that these pumps were also in line with broader market price action. In short, Coinbase has a knack for timing their listings. With the market currently rallying, Coinbase Pro’s listing of the Tether stablecoin should coincide with some coins reaching all time highs.
