Coinbase to Suspend Trading on 80 Non-USD Markets

Coinbase will no longer support up to 80 trading pairs in its non-USD markets as part of efforts to consolidate liquidity.

U.S.-headquartered cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase will halt trading across 80 non-USD trading pairs on its platform. The suspension will take place on October 16 and will affect popular cryptocurrencies such as Arpa Network (ARPA), Band Protocol (BAND), Badger (BADGER), and Sushiswap (SUSHI), among others.

Notably, Coinbase is not delisting these assets from their platform. Instead, the update means that users can no longer trade these assets against BTC, USDT, GBP, EUR, and other currencies that Coinbase previously supported.

Coinbase noted that the latest trading pair delisting is only part of an effort to “improve market health and consolidate liquidity on its platform.” Hence, Coinbase Advanced Trade users can continue to trade the assets using USDC held on their accounts. 

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Meanwhile, the latest move marks another subtle effort by Coinbase to push USDC adoption a few weeks after acquiring an additional stake in the stablecoin issuer, Circle. Coinbase Advanced Trade users may opt for USDC unification on their accounts, enabling them to use the stablecoin like USD deposits on the platform.

Crypto Liquidity Dries Up Amid Bear Market

Coinbase’s latest action also underlines the extent of the winter period that has taken over the crypto market in the past few years. While the cryptocurrency market has rebounded in the past week, liquidity conditions are still far from ideal, especially for altcoins with low market capitalization.

According to data from TheBlock, the crypto market saw a monthly trading volume of $4.1 trillion across top trading volumes during its peak in May 2021. However, last month (September 2023) saw just $311 billion traded, a significant decline from market highs.

Mid-year lawsuits against leading crypto exchanges Coinbase and Binance further exacerbated the low liquidity and trading activity. Yet, the crypto market has recently been showing signs of life again, with many analysts increasingly arguing that the crypto market has already bottomed and is in the early phase of a bull market.