Coinbase Launches Solana DEX Swaps in Push to Become Crypto’s “Everything App”

Coinbase, a popular centralized exchange, is embracing Solana DeFi trading, integrating the Metis API to bring millions of assets to its customer base.

Alongside adding support for Solana DEX trading, Coinbase also unveiled a wealth of new features, including support for prediction markets, perpetuals, stock trading, and asset tokenization.

Coinbase’s vast product expansion suggests the exchange is joining the crowded race to become crypto’s de facto “Everything App”.

Coinbase Integrates Solana DEX Trading

Coinbase has delivered a bombastic slew of announcements as part of its December 17 “System Update”. Outlining the firm’s vision for the future, Armstrong and various Coinbase executives unveiled scores of new products and features designed to make the Coinbase app a one-stop financial hub.

As far as Solana is concerned, Coinbase’s biggest new feature is its added support for Solana DEX trading. The integration brings millions of Solana-based tokens to Coinbase users, promising to make buying long-tail assets, like project tokens and memecoins, as easy as buying Bitcoin.

In practice, Coinbase users will be able to buy any tradable asset on Solana using $USDC, or even purchase tokens directly using their bank account or debit card. 

Coinbase’s integration of Solana DEX trading theoretically increases the TAM (Total Addressable Market) of Solana-based assets. The exchange reportedly services over 105M total users, with 10.8M users actively using the exchange every month. 

It would be foolish to assume that millions of exchange users will suddenly get an itch to explore Solana’s onchain economy. However, the integration makes Solana-native tokens far more accessible for an uninitiated audience, who will be able to trade a greater variety of assets from the comfort of a familiar brand and application.

Powered by Metis, or Jupiter?

Coinbase named Jupiter as its integration partner, using the platform’s Metis API as a swap router to connect its customers to millions of Solana-based assets. While undoubtedly a great vote of confidence for Jupiter and a promising source of traffic and trading volume, Jupiter appears to be going back on a decision made last month.

On November 17, Solana’s DeFi superapp announced that it would be cutting public ties with the Metis API, transitioning the router into a “standalone project separate from Jupiter”. Jupiter previously distanced itself from Metis, suggesting that the aggregator now ran its premier router, Jupiter Ultra.

As part of the messaging around “Breaking Out Metis from Jupiter”, the platform hinted that the decision was influenced by external DeFi apps using the Metis to paint Jupiter’s swap rates as uncompetitive. According to the statement above, labelling Metis quotes as “Jupiter quotes” was deemed inaccurate.

Now that Coinbase has integrated Metis, Jupiter appears to have reclaimed ownership of the router, attributing its success to Jupiter’s own, despite previously calling Metis a standalone product just over a month ago.

$COIN Up 4% as in Pre-Market Trading

Markets have responded positively to Coinbase’s massive announcements, with $COIN stock up 4% in pre-market trading.

The bounce comes as a welcome reprieve for investors, who’ve watched on in disappointment as $COIN succumbed to a 10% decline in the past week’s trading.

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