Last month Coinbase announced that it would start support the trading of Ethers (Ethereum's digital currency) on its platform.
On the one hand, this represents how the digital currency/altcoin universe is becoming more nuanced, with the further development of alternative functionalities creating a more nuanced landscape of altcoins.
On the other hand, it raises the question of what the future of altcoins looks like? BitCoin, long the standard bearer of altcoins, has seen its dominance give way as alternatives such as Ethereum, Ripple, R3CEV and others.
For some market observers, the embrace of Ethereum by exchange and wallet startup Coinbase was a long time coming. Last month, the co-founder of one of the most heavily funded bitcoin startups, Coinbase, announced that its digital currency exchange would start trading ethers, the native cryptocurrency of the Ethereum network. The move came after the startup hosted creator Vitalik Buterin at its headquarters for a presentation on Ethereum this March. Yet, it was the way co-founder Fred Ehrsam released the news – with a complete rebrand to one of the company’s core products accompanied by a strongly worded blog post that warned of bitcoin’s susceptibility to Ethereum, that triggered a strong response throughout the digital currency community.
http://www.coindesk.com/coinbase-ethereum-industry-observers/
