The United States’ first licensed bitcoin exchange is set to be opened this Monday by bitcoin payment processor Coinbase.
The API documentation for the exchange has already been published on Coinbase’s website. It gives some insight into the exchange’s fee structure, revealing that “Coinbase Exchange operates a maker-taker model” and the “taker” fee is 0.25%.
Coinbase made headlines recently after receiving a $75 million investment from the New York Stock Exchange, international bank BBVA, and a USAA subsidiary.
A number of individuals also participated in the funding round, including former Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit and former Thomson Reuters CEO Tom Glocer. Previous investors in the company took part as well, such as Andreessen Horowitz, Union Square Ventures, and Ribbit Capital. DoCoMo Capital and other strategic partners will assist the company to expand its operations to other countries. This brings Coinbase’s total capital raised from investors to $106 million.
Coinbase’s Twitter account posted a message informing users of when the exchange will launch.
T-minus 17 hours https://t.co/eB0on92NRJ
— Coinbase (@coinbase) January 25, 2015
The features available in Coinbase’s new exchange are currently unknown. The company set up a landing page on its website that displays a countdown to the exchange’s launch. The page features an animation of a rocket ship heading towards the moon, which has a blue flag on it. The title simply reads, “To The Moon”.
One /r/bitcoin user, MarketAhab, explained the difference between the new exchange and the current service Coinbase provides. He said, “The service they offer right now is that of a broker. As an exchange, you should be able to trade between currencies in real time rather than waiting for bank transfers and set your own price with limit orders.”
He added, “I’m hoping they also offer leverage and other order types like stop-losses, FOK, etc.”
