Coinbase has announced that customers in the United Kingdom can now use the Pound Sterling to buy digital assets. The cryptocurrency giant based in San Francisco made the announcement on Wednesday.
Increased convenience for UK customers
The announcement is definitely good news for Coinbase’s customers in the U.K. Initially, traders had to change their money into Euros instead of trading in Pounds. This process led to a lot of delays and an increase in transaction fees. The new plan will enable customers in the U.K. to complete payments and withdrawals the same day.
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In a comment on the matter, Coinbase UK CEO, Zeeshan Feroz, said that many banks in the U.K have been reluctant to offering services to crypto businesses. He added that they are happy to be the first company to work with the local banking sector.
Increasing cryptocurrency transactions
With support for the British Pound, Coinbase says it is anticipating an increase in the volume of crypto-related transactions in the country. To start with, the exchange says it will start supporting several pairs with GBP. These will include GBP-ETH and GBP-BTC. These are the pairs that traders bet on in relation to the movement of the currency in the global market. In particular, Coinbase says the new offering will be very attractive to institutional and professional traders.
Increasing the number of digital assets
Recently, Coinbase issued a statement saying it has plans to increase the number of digital assets available for customers to trade. Because of strict regulatory requirements, the exchange has only been offering trade in Litecoin (LTC-USD), Ethereum Classic (ETC-USD), Ethereum (ETH-USD), Bitcoin Cash (BCH-USD) and Bitcoin (BTC-USD).
However, in a blog post, the company announced that it intends to add Zcash, Stellar Lumens, 0x, Basic Attention Token and Cardano.
Because of the strict regulatory requirements, the company is likely to first start offering the new cryptocurrencies in the United Kingdom and Europe before moving to other parts of the world. In preparation for this launch, Coinbase was issued an E-money license by UK regulators earlier this year. The license allows the company to offer payment services and digital assets for investment.
