Coinbase Pro Launches Support for Zcash

Major U.S. cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has launched support for Zcash (ZEC) on its Coinbase Pro platform, according to a company blog post published Nov. 29.

Zcash is a cryptocurrency based on a decentralized blockchain, designed with the goal of making transactions more private than they are in the Bitcoin (BTC) blockchain. Zcash’s “view key” option is used to allow some individuals to see private information about users’ transactions. View keys may be used for an audit or sharing information without disclosing it publically.

Today’s announcement notes that the Coinbase Pro platform will start accepting inbound transfers of Zcash, while deposits will be accepted for at least 12 hours prior to enabling trading. Trading on the ZEC/U.S. dollar order book will begin only after sufficient liquidity is established.

The exchange notes that ZEC trading will initially be available for Coinbase Pro users located in the U.S. (with the exception of New York), U.K., E.U., Canada, Singapore, and Australia. Coinbase will subsequently add more jurisdictions.

Coinbase also stresses that ZEC trading is not yet available on Coinbase.com or their mobile apps, for which the company will make a separate announcement at a later date.

Per the blog post, the ZEC trading will go through four stages, which include “transfer-only,” “post-only,” “limit-only,” and “full trading. While the first two stages will enable users to transfer ZEC to their Coinbase Pro accounts, and post limit orders without matches option, the other two will allow customers to match limit orders and finally fully trade with the altcoin.

Earlier this week, Coinbase Wallet added support for Ethereum Classic (ETC), enabling users to  view, send and receive ETC to their addresses.

Yesterday, Coinbase launched over-the-counter (OTC) trading for institutional customers. Christine Sandler, head of sales at Coinbase, said that the move takes place following increased demand for OTC crypto trading from institutional players.

Following Coinbase’s announcement, the Zcash price spiked from $82 to over $93. At press time the token is trading at $85.78, according to CoinMarketCap. The altcoin’s market capitalization is around $458 million, while its daily trading volume is around $169.7 million at press time.