Coinbase launches DEX portal for UK customers.
The exchange’s UK boss hints at more releases.
Coinbase is opening up its decentralised exchange services to UK customers as it tightens its grip over the British market.
The new initiative is one of several planned UK rollouts this year in the firm’s bid to become an “everything exchange,” Keith Grose, Coinbase UK CEO, told DL News.
“This is our most important market outside of the US,” Grose said. “It's also where we have the most employees outside the US and the biggest presence outside of the US. The UK is a cornerstone for us.”
The launch will “show and demonstrate” to the government that DeFi can be safe, if handled correctly, Grose said.
The comments highlight Coinbase’s ambitious growth plans and its campaign to sway UK lawmakers to introduce crypto-friendly rules.
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'DeFi mullet'
Coinbase previously rolled out the service in the US and Brazil.
The new launch will enable UK customers to access DeFi vendors like Uniswap and Aerodrome through the Coinbase app. Through the decentralised exchange trading integration, UK users will be able to trade assets that are native to Base, Coinbase’s layer 2 network. It also plans to rollout the offering to other networks like Solana.
“This will increase the number of assets they can trade on Coinbase from 300 to millions,” Coinbase said in a blog announcing the UK rollout.
The service is built on the idea of the “DeFi mullet” — easy Coinbase experience in the front and DeFi in the back — that exchange has championed for over a year.
Coinbase will work with “trusted third parties” to screen out and highlight risks to assets, such as a high ownership concentration, Grose said. A high ownership concentration could raise the risk of a rug pull, which is when creators of a project withdraw all or most of the liquidity, including the deposits made by investors, leaving token holders holding empty bags.
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‘Everything exchange’
Coinbase has made no secret of its plans to become an “everything exchange’ where users can trade everything from stocks to memecoins.
These efforts have seen it debut stock market trading and predictions markets on the platform to, as CEO Brian Armstrong put it, “bring the world onchain.”
Most of these efforts have been made in the US, but Grose says more services will come to the UK.
Grose declined to say what other services Coinbase plans to roll out in the UK, but said to look for the services that the firm has launched in the US to “get a sense” of what’s coming.
“I have gray hairs for a reason — it’s shipping season,” Grose said.
Eric Johansson is DL News’ managing editor. Got a tip? Email him at eric@dlnews.com.
