Solana Ecosystem Tokens Could Soon be Listed on Coinbase

Coinbase could be prepping its tracks to allow trading of Solana ecosystem tokens soon as revealed by reports. 

Solana Program Library Tokens to Feature on Coinbase

Recent reports by media organizations suggest that the US-based crypto exchange plans to allow withdrawals of Solana Program Library (SPL) tokens. SPL is Solana’s version of Ethereum’s ERC-20, the token program allows anyone to create their own mint and distribute it to users.

Tokens created on Solana (called SPL tokens) can also be wrapped in SOL (Solana’s native coin/token). 

Even though sources have revealed that the features could come online in the near future, the exchange has declined to comment on the same. 

SPL tokens listing would be a massive step towards Coinbase’s token onboarding strategy and could mark a major development in stepping beyond the Etherverse. For now, Coinbase has only listed Ethereum-based coins and flagship Layer 1 assets such as Algorand (ALGO), Terra (LUNA), and Cosmos (ATOM). 

In the past, the exchange stated its mission of listing ‘every’ allowable crypto, and listing SPL tokens could be a step forwards the same. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong in a June 2021 Tweet had shared that one of the exchange’s goals would be to ‘list every asset where it is legal to do so.’ 

That said, tokens built on Ethereum like Shiba Inu (SHIB) and Chainlink (LINK) have much larger circulating market capitalizations while the biggest SPL token by market cap is Serum (SRM). Serum’s market cap at the time of writing stood at $272 million and was down 5.40% over the last day. 

Furthermore, the total value locked in DeFi for Solana was $7.84 billion and was down almost 50% from its all-time high of $15 billion in early December. 

Could SOL Soar Amid the Coinbase Effect?

The cryptocurrency market sees new terminology as the market matures and one such interesting phenomenon is called the ‘Coinbase Effect’ – Which means that tokens tend to experience a quick price uptick after they’re listed on top exchanges like Coinbase.

Cardano for instance was one token that saw considerable price appreciation after a Coinbase listing in March 2021. 

Notably, Solana has lost close to 25% price in the month of January till now amid the many market dips and Bitcoin flash crashes. At the time of writing, Solana was trading at $89.18 and was down 6.88% over the last 24-hours while it was down 34.99% over the week. 

For now, it was not clear as to which regions the trading would first come online, or which SPL tokens Coinbase plans to start with. Nonetheless, a listing by Coinbase could push SOL’s and SPL tokens’ price if it goes live in the near future.