Coinbase Lists Compound's COMP Token for Retail Crypto Traders

The Compound token almost fell back below $200 earlier this week, before Coinbase rode to the rescue. It listed the token for retail users, and gave COMP a nice price bump.

AccessTimeIconJun 26, 2020 at 3:35 p.m. UTC
Updated Aug 19, 2021 at 2:47 a.m. UTC

Presented By Icon

Election 2024 coverage presented by

Stand with crypto

The COMP token may have been around for less than two weeks, but it's already been listed on both Coinbase's retail and Pro platforms.

The San Francisco-based exchange said in a blog post Thursday the token had been made available on Coinbase.com and via the firm's Android and iOS apps.

  • Bitcoin Mining in the U.S. Will Become 'a Lot More Decentralized': Core Scientific CEO
    13:18
    Bitcoin Mining in the U.S. Will Become 'a Lot More Decentralized': Core Scientific CEO
  • Binance to Discontinue Its Nigerian Naira Services After Government Scrutiny
    05:10
    Binance to Discontinue Its Nigerian Naira Services After Government Scrutiny
  • The first video of the year 2024
    04:07
    The first video of the year 2024
  • The last regression video of the year 3.67.0
    40:07
    The last regression video of the year 3.67.0
  • "Coinbase customers can now buy, sell, convert, send, receive or store COMP. COMP will be available for customers in all Coinbase-supported regions, with the exception of New York state," the exchange said.

    COMP was listed on Coinbase Pro, the exchange's professional trading platform, on Monday, in what was one of the fastest Coinbase listings to date following the launch of a digital asset.

    Predictably, the COMP price, which had been meandering downwards since a sharp drop on Tuesday, got a 20% kick from the news.

    Just before the Coinbase announcement, the token was trading at just above $210 – down 40% from where it started the week at something like $350. At the time of writing, COMP was just under the $250 mark.

    COMP token price since launch
    COMP token price since launch

    COMP has been making headlines since its inauspicious launch less than two weeks ago metamorphosed into a triple-figure rally. After an initial listing price of $80 on Monday, June 15, COMP broke the $100 mark Thursday before its price doubled again in the space of 24 hours.

    So far, COMP's all-time high has been the $372 it reached last Sunday.

    However, the launch hasn't been without issues. COMP is a governance token, awarded freely to both lenders and borrowers to incentivize people to use the platform as much as possible. It didn't take long for traders to realize they could just borrow against themselves to receive free tokens.

    Automated market maker Curv told CoinDesk at the time that users were lending one USD stablecoin against another, repeating the process up to 30 times to maximize their COMP allocation.

    Earlier this week, some analysts also highlighted that traders were buying COMP tokens from spot markets together with COMP perpetual swaps – futures without expiry – on derivatives exchange FTX, to accelerate price increases further.

    "The relatively large size of the COMP Perpetual Swap market, it would be profitable to buy the Perp and then buy spot in significant enough size to move the price, amplifying gains in the Perp and squeezing the shorts," said Tony Sheng, angel investor and former principal at Multicoin Capital, in a blog post on Wednesday – the same day the COMP price tumbled to $200.

    Of course, 48 hours is a long time in crypto. With the news of the Coinbase listing, COMP has rebounded and its market cap now stands at $680 million, according to CoinGecko.

    EDIT (June 29, 09:00 UTC): A previous version of this article stated Tony Sheng was still a principal at Multicoin Capital. This has since been corrected.

    Disclosure

    Please note that our privacy policy, terms of use, cookies, and do not sell my personal information have been updated.

    CoinDesk is an award-winning media outlet that covers the cryptocurrency industry. Its journalists abide by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk has adopted a set of principles aimed at ensuring the integrity, editorial independence and freedom from bias of its publications. CoinDesk is part of the Bullish group, which owns and invests in digital asset businesses and digital assets. CoinDesk employees, including journalists, may receive Bullish group equity-based compensation. Bullish was incubated by technology investor Block.one.


    Learn more about Consensus 2024, CoinDesk's longest-running and most influential event that brings together all sides of crypto, blockchain and Web3. Head to consensus.coindesk.com to register and buy your pass now.