With today’s surprise announcement of Coinbase adding Stellar XLM–and the subsequent disappointing price movement–it’s become more clear that the “Coinbase Effect” has been pruned from the market.
In December 2017, the price of Bitcoin Cash skyrocketed from $2240 to $4330 in the span of 24 hours, constituting a 93 percent appreciation in price in the course of day. While some of that price movement occurred prior to its official listing on Coinbase–leading to the exchange being accused of insider trading–the bulk of BCH’s value increase occurred following its addition to Coinbase.
The end result was the beginning of the “Coinbase Effect,” where cryptocurrency investors looked to the power of the popular cryptocurrency exchange to bring about a significant price boost in new coin listing. In the weeks following the BCH listing, XRP also benefited from an association with Coinbase. While the coin caught fire in the early weeks of January 2018, during which the crypto markets experienced their most bullish period in history, a large part of the investor interest was driven in anticipation of a Coinbase listing. XRP leapt to $3.80 per coin, despite having a 100 billion max supply, and Ripple’s founder Jeb McCaleb briefly jumped to one of the richest men in the world ahead of Amazon’s Jeff Bezos.
However, Coinbase dispelled the rumors of a XRP addition at that point in time, and the price of the currency responded by falling with the rest of the market through 2018’s bear cycle. Even with its most recent listing on Coinbase at the end of February 2019, the price appreciation was nowhere near what investors would have expected a year ago. The price of XRP failed to appreciate more than 7 percent on the day of the Coinbase listing, with most of the gains being lost in the next several days.
As previously reported by EWN, Coinbase made the surprise addition of Stellar XLM to their exchange earlier today, with the official trading set to launch in the early hours of Mar. 15. While some outlets correctly predicted the listing was soon to occur, Coinbase’s association with Stellar XLM has been floating around since last July, when the exchange announced it was considering several currencies–XLM among them–for addition to their platform.
However, the price movement for Stellar XLM since the announcement has been less than lackluster. XLM has managed to decline in price over the last 24 hours, with the currency generating almost no investor interest in the hours following the announcement.
It’s possible that the majority of investment money in Stellar entered ahead of the Coinbase announcement, but the reality is a severe waning in the influence of cryptocurrency exchanges swaying coin price. While Coinbase may have had held the power to cause new coins to nearly double in price a year ago, the importance of exchange-impact, in addition the critical factor of investor FOMO, has subsided with the bear market.
Some industry figures have pointed out that the ongoing “crypto winter” has eradicated market speculators and short-term investors, leaving behind those interest in the technology and industry of cryptocurrency. If the addition of XRP and XLM to Coinbase is any indication, we have seen a maturing in the reaction of investors to pure exchange-driven speculation.
