Coinbase Wallet enables swaps on BNB Chain

Yesterday, Coinbase officially announced that its Wallet has integrated support for the BNB and Avalanche blockchains. 

One Wallet. Even more networks. Thousands of tokens.

Now supporting token swaps on @avalancheavax and @BNBCHAIN on Coinbase Wallet.

Learn more -> https://t.co/ZdEg1T8s53 pic.twitter.com/prWhSlPYl8

— Coinbase Wallet (@CoinbaseWallet) May 23, 2022

Coinbase Wallet adds support for Avalanche and BNB Chain

This new integration now supports thousands of tokens, in addition to Bitcoin and those on the Ethereum blockchain. 

In fact, after Ethereum, BNB Chain is the most popular blockchain used to issue new tokens, and with the implosion of Terra, Avalanche is a candidate to take its place, though perhaps only in part. 

The Coinbase Wallet also supports the Solana and Polygon blockchains, in particular to store NFTs, as well as those of Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, XRP, Stellar and Dogecoin. 

It also supports all tokens on EVM-compatible blockchains, such as Polygon, Avalanche and C-Chain. 

The official announcement reveals that in May 2022 in particular, the trading functionality of the wallet has been expanded to support token swaps on BNB Chain and Avalanche. So it is not just a matter of supporting the receiving and sending of tokens residing on these blockchains, but also enabling decentralized swaps. 

In fact, the company openly states that the goal is to bring the vast world of DEX trading inside Coinbase Wallet, i.e. outside of the company’s centralized exchange. 

Coinbase Wallet’s DEX trading function is integrated into the wallet and can therefore be used freely and without having to go through the centralized exchange of the same name. 

This function was previously enabled on ERC-20 tokens on Ethereum, and is now also possible on BNB Chain, Avalanche and Polygon. 

Initially, the new functionality will only be available to a limited number of users, but it should later be extended to everyone. 

The advantages of Coinbase Wallet

Of course, it will still be possible to use the Coinbase wallet app to connect to the centralized exchange, where swaps are faster and cheaper. But in this way, it will also be possible to swap on DEX with the same app. 

It is worth remembering that swaps on DEX are immediate, i.e. it is not possible to set limit prices as is done on sell or buy orders on centralized exchanges. DEXs generally do not have an order book, but merely handle immediate swaps between those who are selling and those who are buying at that precise moment. 

Coinbase Wallet is a non-custodial wallet, so the user has full and exclusive control over the private keys, unlike the Coinbase exchange where the user has no control over the private keys of their wallet at all. 

One should therefore not confuse the classic and famous centralized Coinbase exchange with this app, the Coinbase Wallet, which is not an exchange even though it allows swaps, and is not custodial.