Coinbase Offers 'Thousands of Tokens' in Expanded Exchange Service

Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States, has added BNB Chain (formerly Binance Smart Chain) and Avalanche to the list of supported networks for Coinbase Wallet, where users can exchange and store cryptocurrencies.

A May 24 blog post by Coinbase said the addition would provide access to “thousands of tokens” that constitute “a wider variety than most traditional centralized exchanges can offer.” many".

The addition of BNB Chain (BNB) and Avalanche (AVAX) brings the total number of supported networks to four, including Ethereum (ETH) and Polygon (MATIC). Wallet users looking to trade on-chain can use Coinbase’s own in-app decentralized exchange (DEX) on the four networks. Token Bridge is not yet available.

Coinbase Wallet allows users to self-custody their cryptocurrencies and provides access to on-chain functionality, unlike Coinbase's centralized platform.

Coinbase currently has only 173 tokens listed on its exchange. Those numbers pale in comparison to the thousands across the four networks that Coinbase Wallet users can now access. Over the next few months, the exchange Coinbase said, “we will make it possible to exchange across the broader network.”

“Not only will transactions expand, but we also plan to add support for network bridges, allowing you to seamlessly move tokens between multiple networks.”

Network bridges involve sending tokens between networks without going through a centralized exchange (CEX). Popular token bridges include Multichain and Wormhole.

While initially only available to a small number of users, Coinbase is also rolling out its Web3 wallet and browser for mobile apps. This will give mobile traders access to a broad DEX ecosystem on supported networks, not just Coinbase's own.

According to data from CoinGecko, the BNB chain had a transaction volume of $74 billion, while Avalanche had a transaction volume of $68.5 billion in the past 24 hours.