Coinbase has integrated Wormhole to its trading platform, enabling customers to buy and sell Wormhole tokens and access enhanced cross-chain functionality.
Bridging blockchain networks
Wormhole is a protocol that facilitates interoperability – the transfer of assets and data between different blockchain networks.
This provides users of Coinbase, the largest US crypto exchange, with access to more technology and seamless transfers across the different ecosystems. Coinbase users can also use the new functionality to explore decentralized finance (DeFi) applications and non-fungible token (NFT) opportunities.
Investors are looking for easy, efficient ways to incorporate different cryptocurrency assets access a diverse set of blockchain networks and tokens. By listing Wormhole as an SPL token, the standard way of operating on the Solana blockchain, Coinbase has recognized Solana’s growing importance and the trend towards fast, low-cost networks in cross-chain infrastructure development.
Seeking legitimacy
Wormhole supports a range of blockchains, including Base, BNB Chain, Ethereum, Algorand, Avalanche, Optimism, Arbitrum and Polygon.
Its listing has attracted a significant amount of media reports. It raised $225 million from a group of investors in late 2023, valuing it at $2.5 billion, and counts a number of well-known investors in its funding base. These include Brevan Howard, founded in 2002 as a traditional finance hedge fund, and Coinbase Ventures, the venture capital financing arm of the exchange announcing the news.
This wider adoption by Coinbase may be intended to provide increased legitimacy, boosting confidence among institutional investors who view major exchange listings as validation of a project’s credibility and long-term viability.
Wormhole benefited temporarily from a price spike on reports of the news in late June, rising by 33%, though it later fell back. $W sold for $1.31 at its launch in April 2024 and it is now consistently trading around the $0.06 mark, with a market capitalization of just under $300 million.
