Coinbase Announces Pre-Launch Market Trading

On June 17th, the cryptocurrency exchange giant Coinbase announced its support for pre-launch market trading.

This new feature will enable eligible institutional and retail users to participate in futures trading before tokens are released on spot markets.

Other major exchanges, such as Binance and Bybit, are already offering this type of trading.

Announcement on X

Coinbase first shared the news on X, stating: “We’re excited to announce support for pre-launch markets on Coinbase International Exchange and Coinbase Advanced.”

For reference, Coinbase International caters to institutional investors, providing advanced trading tools and high-volume trading capabilities. Meanwhile, Coinbase Advanced is tailored for retail investors, offering more sophisticated trading features compared to its standard version.

The exchange then clarified what pre-launch trading means: “Trade new tokens before they launch and participate in price discovery, all within a trusted and secure platform.”

Official Blog Post

Additional details about this update were later shared on the Coinbase blog. Here’s everything you need to know.

• This new trading instrument is available to users from several undisclosed countries, with the explicit exclusion of US, UK, and Canada.
• Pre-launch markets make it possible for users to trade perpetual futures for crypto projects that haven’t launched yet. After a project finally launches on the spot exchange, these contracts are automatically converted to standard perpetual futures contracts.
• Both long and short positions will be supported, with the option to utilize up to 2x leverage to amplify your returns.

It’s not yet clear when exactly this exciting new feature will be released. The only information available at this time is “coming soon.”

Risks Involved

Coinbase also shared several warnings about pre-launch futures trading.

The first thing to know is that these markets have different index price mechanics compared to standard futures and rely on four-hour exponential moving averages.

Traders should also expect lower liquidity, higher volatility, and a greater risk of getting liquidated.

Finally, there is always a chance that the token will never even launch, which is completely out of the exchange’s control.

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