Coinbase Effect Hits DeFi as yEarn’s YFI Token Surges 10% on Pro Listing News

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11 September 2020

A coming listing on Coinbase Pro has brought a boost to yEarn.Finance’s already highly priced token.

  • The YFI token soared an additional $6,000 – more than half the current price of a bitcoin – on the news it will be listed on the more advanced level "Pro" exchange.
  • Coinbase announced Thursday it will begin accepting deposits for the decentralized finance (DeFi) coin on from next week.
  • In response, YFI tokens jumped approximately 10% from just over $29,000 to nearly $35,000 in the space of a couple of hours.
  • Most tokens listed on Coinbase have experienced, to varying degrees, a market increase in price, a market phenomenon called the "Coinbase Effect."
  • Today's market movement shows the Coinbase name, once closely associated with its reputation for listing very few digital assets, still carries considerable influence in the cryptocurrency market.
  • YFI has since tracked back slightly to $32,800 by press time.
  • yEarn is a decentralized investment protocol that identifies and executes various DeFi-related trading strategies using digital assets deposited by users.
  • Since launch in June, total value locked in yEarn has skyrocketed from $2.5 million to well over $1 billion at press time, according to its website.
  • Liquidity providers receive YFI tokens for providing certain tokens and give holders a say on the direction of the protocol.
  • Since it began circulating in mid-June, the token has moved from approximately $800 to its current valuation, making it one of the most valued tokens in the digital asset class by price.
  • Although the price of an individual YFI token is roughly three times that of a single bitcoin, there are only 30,000 YFIs in circulation, meaning its $983 million market cap is dwarfed by bitcoin’s $190 billion cap.
  • yEarn's founder, Andre Cronje, unveiled a whole new protocol this week that would allow users to borrow digital assets from a liquidity pool, using staked stablecoins as collateral.
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YFI token shot up when Coinbase announced its listing plans.
Source: CoinGecko
  • Coinbase Pro said it will launch the yEarn order book in four phases once there's enough liquidity, and will only open up full trading once it's satisfied there's a "healthy and orderly market."
  • Excepting New York State, YFI will be available in all existing Coinbase jurisdictions. The exchange has not yet confirmed whether YFI will be listed on its retail-orientated exchange.
  • Coinbase listed the "COMP" governance token from Compound in mid-June – which in the frothy market conditions at the time contributed to its price spiking to over $350 before it corrected back to $200 just days later.

See also: First Mover: DeFi ‘Vampire’ SushiSwap Sucks $800M from Uniswap; BitMEX Basis Lags

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