Coinbase to Consider The Listing of Ethereum Forks Following Merge
As the long-awaited Ethereum merger gets closer to release, crypto exchanges worldwide have to make the tough decision on whether to support tokens forked off of ETH in an attempt to fight against the change.
Last Thursday, Coinbase signaled it might be willing to play along. Coinbase is considering losing forked, proof of work versions of Ethereum as they begin to pop up post-merge, the exchange announced in a blog post.
“At Coinbase, our goal is to list every asset that is legal and safe to list, so that we create a level playing field for all the new assets being created in crypto while continuing to protect our customers,” stated the company in an updated portion of a statement first published on August 16. “Should an ETH PoW fork arise following The Merge, this asset will be reviewed with the same rigor as any other asset that is listed on our exchange.”
The San Francisco-based crypto firm has in the past been quiet on the topic of listing forked Ethereum tokens and has been very vocal in its support for the new proof of stake method ETH will be moving to next month.
The upcoming staked Ethereum will now be what runs the more energy-efficient, upgraded proof of stake network; in turn, this move will end the method of proof of work mining.
Ethereum runs on a proof-of-work system, which is generated by powerful computers competing to solve complex problems to “mine” the coins.
In an attempt to save the method of ETH mining post-merge, a prominent Chinese crypto miner recently launched a campaign to create his fork of the Ethereum network upon the merge and, in the process, develop a still minable proof of work ETH that will be called ETHW.
Since the crusade began this month, multiple crypto exchanges have come out supporting ETHW, with Poloniex, Huobi, BitMEX, and Bitrue now listing ETHW-affiliated financial products, such as futures and exchange-specific “IOU” tokens that are contingent upon the ETHW fork taking place next month.
While these exchanges quickly decided to list the fork, some other prominent institutions within crypto are taking a wait-and-see approach to these new assets. Binance, the world's number one cryptocurrency exchange by volume, did not follow fellow exchanges in listing the IOU tokens but did not rule it out as a possibility, stating that it would evaluate the listing of forked Ethereum tokens on a case-by-case basis dependent on “the same strict listing review process” used for other coins.
Coinbase's blog post from Thursday is consistent with its fellow exchange as both corporations seem to be taking a wait-and-see approach to see if the ETHW fork occurs and how its affiliated token fares in a post-merge environment.
In the meantime, the “IOU” versions of ETHW have dropped in price since the initial hype for the assets has faded. Since the launch of ETHW on Poloniex, the coin has slumped some 62% to $52.59.
At writing, ETHW has plunged a further to $45.68, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
Further, 24-hour trading volume for the token has all but collapsed, down 93% from a high of $13.8 million shortly after ETHW’s debut to $957,589 on August 25.
These tokens create an exciting narrative to follow in the lead-up to the merge and follow a similar tale spun back in the early oughts of crypto that led to the creation of ETH classic.