Coinbase Expands UK Offering With Four GBP Altcoin Pairs

U.S. cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase will open trading of four more cryptocurrencies for U.K. pound sterling (GBP) Friday, a blog post confirmed Wednesday, September 5.

Following a deal with UK bank Barclays to open access to the country’s Faster Payments network in March, residents will now be able to trade altcoins Ethereum (ETH), Ethereum Classic (ETC), Litecoin (LTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) for GBP, in addition to the existing Bitcoin (BTC).

“With support for UK domestic bank transfers in GBP via the Faster Payments Scheme, it is now significantly easier, faster and cheaper for UK customers to trade cryptocurrencies on the Coinbase platform,” the post confirms.

Coinbase became the first cryptocurrency exchange to use Faster Payments through the Barclays deal, resulting in account deposits and withdrawals attracting significantly lower fees and faster processing times.

From 9AM BST September 7, a gradual switch-on will see full trading ability for all pairs slowly introduced, subject to monitoring of each orderbook, the exchange says.

The UK is one of the European targets of expansion among major cryptocurrency platform operators, with Chinese heavyweight Huobi opening a dedicated London office in June.

“London was selected as the first office in Europe, due to its preeminence as a global financial center and the largest cryptocurrency trading centre in the region,” executives wrote at the time.

More recently, UK regulators have issued repeated warnings over scam companies misleading consumers by stealing various identity data from operators that hold a legitimate licence from UK regulator the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).