I just wanted to post this topic to engage with the community and speculate a little bit about where we currently are.
First I wanted to touch on why we need Cardano custodians. Most importantly institutional investors require these safe guards before they can aquire Cardano. We are talking funds like Grayscale, bitwise, etc… Most hedge funds and other future funds want to see a developed custodial marketplace for any given crypto so they are not beholden to 1 particular provider.
Right now coinbase has a tight grip on this market. The 2 above mentioned funds currently utilize coinbase custody. This is not to say they are the end all be all but there is some importance to having access to their solutions.
Second I wanted to discuss hypothetically where we are. I know many in the community are frustrated that coinbase continues to give us the cold shoulder. Regardless of their reasoning we can speculate with some level of certainty that the tides may soon be changing.
Let’s discuss the multiple fronts opening up against coinbase. PayPal recently acquired Curv which can support ADA. They may decide to sneak in. Etana custody works with Curv, Gemini, Binance, and Kraken. The last two currently support ADA. While this might only be a loose affiliation there are definitely connections there. Also Kraken won their bank charter last year and are slated to begin services sometime this year. These services include custody support.
With Kraken and Binance directly breathing down coinbase’s neck, and Paypal/Gemini possibly lurking in the shadows, it would be hard to imagine them continuing to refuse services for much longer. Institutional investors will start pressuring them to support ADA.
Also something to consider is the coinbase IPO. Of the top 5 crypto projects coinbase only has 2 that are tradeable (factoring out Tether). This has to look bad to educated investors (might be why they choose a direct listing). They could be counting on less savvy retail investors to drive up the price. Either way it will become clear to everyone soon that they are lacking Cardano, Polkadot (as a tradeable asset/ currently available on CB custody), and Binance coin. Obviously they will never support the Binance coin which is a direct competitor so they really need to add ADA and DOT.
I know there is a ton of speculation here but I wanted to open up a dialog and hear what you all think about our current custodial services situation.
What do you guys think? I would love to hear your thoughts, ideas, and possibly how the CF is approaching this issue. This is meant to be fun and not super serious so please no hate mail lol.