Going with the holiday tradition, major exchange Coinbase is running “12 Days of Coinbase” from today until December 21, revealing a new announcement each day.
Naturally, given that we are in the season of giving, the first announcement allows users to use cryptocurrency to purchase e-gift cards for their friends and family, and the offers encompasses Uber, Nike and more.
This is made possible through a program with WeGift, a crypto gifting service that offers purchasing possibilities with GAP, Domino’s, Adidas, Uber and Nike, among many others. Crypto-purchased gift cards feature no additional fees and a cash bonus of upto 10%.
To use these offers, users will have to link their Coinbase wallets with WeGift’s platform, whereupon they can immediately purchase gift cards with their available funds.
Coinbase’s decision to allow gift card purchases with crypto points to the idea that they are trying to expand the usability of crypto which, even now, remains quite limited.
It will be interesting to see the increase in transaction volume as a result of this announcement, and whether the cash bonus and lack of withdrawal fees will incentivize users to purchase gift cards this festive season with cryptocurrency.
New Tokens to Be Listed?
With all of the hype surrounding Coinbase’s listings, and the intense discussion surrounding which tokens will be next to be blessed with Coinbase’s user base, the possibility that new tokens might be announced is a very likely one.
Coinbase has revealed quite a bit in that regard, releasing a few blog posts that gave the market an idea of the tokens that are under examination.
One of these blog posts resulted in much anticipation within the community, as it showed 31 tokens that were under consideration, including Cardano (ADA), Civic (CVC), Dai (DAI), EOS (EOS), Golem Network Token (GNT), NEO (NEO) OmiseGO (OMG) and Stellar (XLM).
Out of these 31 tokens, Civic, Loom Network and Decentraland have already been added to Coinbase Pro, the gateway to regular Coinbase users.
This follows the previous addition of three popular tokens, Basic Attention Token (BAT), Zcash (ZEC) and 0x (ZRX), to the exchange.
Ripple (XRP) holders are also experiencing a fervor as the belief that Coinbase will soon support the cross-border payments token is increasing.
Users should temper their expectations with some realism, however; Coinbase has made it clear that tokens will added on a case-by-case basis, according to jurisdictional regulation.
Regardless, Coinbase is in a prime position to expand its market and grow its business. With $300 million in funding now at their disposal, the odds are in their favor.
