NASDAQ-listed cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase announced on Monday the addition of DOT support in Coinbase Pro as interest in the coin continues to increase.
Starting on June 14, Coinbase Pro users were able to transfer DOT to their accounts in all of Coinbase’s supported jurisdictions with the exception of Singapore, with DOT trading being scheduled to begin on Wednesday the 16th.
Users of the professional trading platform will then be able to trade DOT with any of the DOT-USD, DOT-BTC, DOT-EUR, DOT-GBP, and DOT-USDT trading pairs, as long as the order books are deemed to be sufficiently healthy by the exchange on Wednesday.
Coinbase Offers Polkadot to Pros
DOT won’t be supported by Coinbase’s retail platform yet, the exchange announced it will be making a separate announcement once it decides if it will be listed.
However, based on previous listings, it is expected that Coinbase’s other platforms will be adding support for the cryptocurrency sometime in the next weeks.
Earlier this month, Coinbase Pro listed Dogecoin following months of increasing popularity that saw the coin’s market capitalization rise. However, DOGE has not been listed in the standard version of the exchange so far.
Parallel Finance Raises $2M From Major Investors
Parallel Finance, a Decentralized Finance Protocol built on Polkadot, recently raised $2 million to boost the DeFi ecosystem in Kusama, Polkadot’s Canary network.
The project was backed by companies like Pantera Capital, Polychain Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Breyer Capital, 8 Decimal Capital, and Hypersphere Ventures, some of the most recognized investors in the cryptocurrency space.
In an interview with Coindesk, Parallel Finance’s CEO explained the project’s mission by stating:
“One of the biggest problems we are trying to solve is the lack of lending protocols in the Polkadot/Kusama ecosystem. We’ve seen a significant demand for DOT/KSM holders to borrow and lend their tokens.”
With the support of developers and technical advisors from Stanford University, Ruan’s team is looking to create a platform that allows investors to borrow funds using their staking derivatives as collateral.
With developers racing to capitalized on the diminishing dominance of the Ethereum network on the DeFi ecosystem, networks like Solana, Binance Smart Chain, Algorand, and Polkadot have gained traction among new DeFi projects.
Polkadot Is Becoming a Favorite Among Institutional Investors
Following the recent market crashes that followed the latest bull run, investors have been unsure of what position to adopt when it comes to cryptocurrencies and blockchain.
The increasing pressure that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum have experienced over the recent weeks, has not helped to clear the panorama.
Despite this, 2 major points of view seem to have been taken: retail investors going for short-term gains with coins like DOGE and SHIBA INU, and institutional investors looking at alternative networks like Polkadot.
With experts like Ked Ban Schereven, managing director at digital asset investment company KR1, showing their support for Polkadot.
The network is seen to be gaining popularity among institutional investors that see as one of the most likely competitors to Ethereum.
Schereven referred to this opinion by stating:
“We’re seeing talent move on to Polkadot that was going to build on Ethereum […] I think it’s going to be one of the winners in the next few years, and then it’s going to last for maybe 100 years.”
Firms like Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and UBS have also been reported as supporting DOT products like 21Shares AG’s ETP, further reflecting the potential of the network.
Likely contenders to be “Ethereum killers” include networks like Cardano, Algorand, Solana, and Polkadot, but there is still ample time to see how Ethereum 2.0 will address the issues that have resulted in its loss of developers.
