Coinbase has just unexpectedly announced that its team is looking into making the addition of five top altcoins into Coinbase services.

Potential Support for Five Top Altcoins

The San Francisco-based exchange took to Twitter to announce that it is “exploring” options to add several crypto assets, namely Zcash, Cardano, and Stellar Lumens.

A Medium post noted:

“We are exploring the addition of several new assets, and will be working with local banks and regulators to add them in as many jurisdictions as possible.”

The full list of assets are as follows, which are all premier alternative cryptocurrencies (altcoins):

Cardano (ADA)

Basic Attention Token (BAT)

Stellar Lumens (XLM)

Zcash (ZEC)

0x (ZRX)

The crypto exchange pointed out that the addition of these assets to Coinbase services will require “additional exploratory work,” adding that there is no guarantee that the exchange will support these assets in the future. This process is likely to be different than the “ongoing process of adding Ethereum Classic,” as the individual blockchains of Zcash, Stellar, and Cardano may prove to be technically difficult to fully integrate into Coinbase services.

The blog noted that even if Coinbase was to integrate these altcoins, the features supported may not be all-encompassing, due to a potential for technical and regulatory constraints. The post stated:

“Our listing process may result in some of these assets being listed solely for customers to buy and sell, without the ability to send or receive using a local wallet. We may also only enable certain ways to interact with these assets through our site, such as supporting only deposits and withdrawals from transparent Zcash addresses.”

The American exchange didn’t give any clear timelines regarding the additions of these cryptocurrencies, but it was made clear that ongoing updates would be given to its customers through the Medium and Twitter social media platforms.

In accordance with its new policy, Coinbase noted that the announcement was made internally and to the public simultaneously, ensuring that insider trading would not occur.

Coins Mentioned See Price Surge

The coins that were singled out by Coinbase saw an immediate price surge on the announcement, with players like Zcash, BAT, and 0x seeing over 20% surges. Cardano and Stellar experienced milder moves upwards, seeing 11.2% and 9%, respectively. 0x has seen the biggest price jump so far, moving up 29.6% on the back of an influx of buying pressure.

Getting listed on Coinbase has historically been a bullish signal for cryptocurrencies, as securing a coveted spot on Coinbase’s cryptocurrency roster normally brings high levels of attention and adoption to a project.