On Thursday (20 December 2018), day 11 of Coinbase’s “12 Days of Coinbase” initiative (a new announcement every day between December 10th and December 21st), the crypto exchange announced the launch of its trading platform in six more European countries.
The six new markets are Andorra, Gibraltar, Guernsey, Iceland, Isle of Man, and Lithuania.
Coinbase says that since it was founded in 2012, it has “continually worked toward its mission of creating an open financial system for the world,” and that over the last six years, it has expanded its “footprint” from just the U.S. to 42 countries (including the six added yesterday):
- Asia-Pacific: Australia; Singapore
- Europe: Andorra; Austria; Belgium; Bulgaria; Croatia; Cyprus; Czech Republic; Denmark; Estonia; Finland; France; Gibraltar; Greece; Guersey; Hungary; Iceland; Isle of Man; Italy; Jersey; Latvia; Liechtenstein; Lithuania; Luxembourg; Malta; Monaco; Netherlands; Norway; Poland; Portugal; Romania; San Marino; Slovakia; Slovenia; Spain; Sweden; Switzerland; UK
- North America: Canada; United States
Customers in the six new markets will be able to use Coinbase Consumer (Coinbase.com) and the Coinbase mobile app (available for iOS and Android), “allowing them to buy and sell cryptocurrencies on the Coinbase platform for the very first time,” and Coinbase says that it plans to “make Coinbase Pro and Prime available in these regions over time.”
The CEO of Coinbase UK, Zeeshan Feroz, told CNBC that when deciding which countries to expand to next, his firm looks for markets that are geographically close to the existing jurisdictions in which it operates. Due to the upcoming separation of the UK from the European Union, Coinbase recently opened an office in Dublin, Republic of Ireland, which will serve in future as its European headquarters.
Feroz promised an “aggressive” expansion plan for 2019:
“I think you can expect a more aggressive approach to us adding more countries in the coming months. Much of what we're doing here is driven by customer needs and what we're seeing in the market.”
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