Coinbase: No plans to support ETC in the short term, will continue to support the longest chain

Coinbase reportedly has no plans to offer support for Ethereum Classic, an alternative version of the ethereum blockchain that has begun to gain traction this week, in the short term.

Representatives for the San Francisco company said the decision extends to its consumer wallet as well as GDAX, a digital asset exchange on Coinbase that offers trading in both bitcoin and ether.

“In the short term, we do not plan to add support for Ethereum Classic,” Coinbase said.

Coinbase, a startup that has raised more than $100 million in venture funding, said it was “closely monitoring” developments involving a rivalry between two versions of the ethereum blockchain that arose over a disagreement over how to resolve issues surrounding The DAO.

Ethereum Classic has chosen to continue maintaining a blockchain history whose transactions have been deemed invalid by a majority of the Ethereum blockchain overseen by developers and voted on by community members.

Coinbase’s announcement comes after several major exchanges (Poloniex and Kraken) announced support for ETC trading and saw rising trading volumes.

In the past 24 hours, the trading volume of ETC, the native digital asset of the blockchain network on which Ethereum Classic is based, exceeded US$93 million, and its value increased by 300%, surpassing ETH.

As for how Ethereum Classic will perform, a Coinbase representative said the company will support the ‘longest chain,’ or the version of the blockchain with the most enclosed transaction blocks.

“Our guiding principle is that we’re going to follow the longest chain, the most popular chain, and that’s what we’re going to continue to support,” the representatives said.

The company noted that they will likely continue to monitor the situation and see how things develop over the coming weeks.

The comments from Coinbase are noteworthy given that Coinbase has become one of the most prominent backers of the Ethereum platform, having added buying and selling capabilities for ether to its consumer wallet just last week.