Coinbase announces plans for 40 digital resources, including XRP

As cryptocurrency becomes more widespread, pension funds and other large institutions are trying to add it to their portfolios. This represents a potential opportunity for investors, but also a new business line for Coinbase, which charges the funds to be the custodian of their cryptographic resources.

Friday, Coinbase announced that it is exploring plans to expand its custody service to include Another 40 assets, including XRP, which is the third largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization

Institutional funds are required by law to use a caretaker to store their belongings and protect them from theft. In return, the caretakers charge a fee to keep the goods safe.

Currently, Coinbase serves as custodian for four types of cryptocurrency – Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum Litecoin – and pays 0.1% per month in addition to $ 100,000 set-to-payment, according to information provided by the company at the end of last year. Custody service customers must keep at least $ 10 million.

Among the other notable cryptocurrencies that Coinbase plans to archive are Monero, Dash, Tezos and Telegram. Here is a screenshot showing these and some of the others:

With the addition of new cryptographic resources, Coinbase is ready to increase its revenue from custody services. This is significant because a growing number of companies offer cryptocurrency trading, which has been a profitable business for Coinbase, but where margins are expected to decline in the future.

A Coinbase spokesperson refused to provide a specific timetable for when exactly the custody support for new resources will be available. The company also says that plans to add all 40 assets are not final.

Coinbase is not the only cryptocurrency company to offer custody (another is Circle of Boston) and does not sell much of the resources it intends to keep as a custodian. As such, it is unclear how the expansion of its custody offerings will increase Coinbase's revenues.

Currently, Coinbase has the funds Autonomous Partners, Polychain Cap and Multicoin Cap among its custody clients. The company claims it wants to have more than 100 institutional clients and deposit at least $ 20 billion in custody by the end of 2019.

Meanwhile, Coinbase revealed on Friday that traders will be able to buy and sell the asset known as Ethereum Classic start Tuesday. The move comes after the company announced in June to add the cryptocurrency, which is currently the 14th largest, according to the CoinMarketCap website.