Coinbase Expands Bitcoin Buying Service to Australia

Digital currency exchange provider Coinbase has expanded to Australia, bringing the total number of countries its supports worldwide to 33.

Announced today, Coinbase will allow users to buy bitcoin and ether with credit and debit cards. Notably, users will not be able to sell digital currency.

Coinbase product manager Ankur Nandwani said that the company was keen to start with extending its buying service to Australia as a means to increase the size of its network, but that it hopes to add a sell function at a later date.

Nandwani told CoinDesk:

"In the new countries, each country has its own way to enter the market."

With the news, Coinbase brings its exchange service to a market with relatively little access to trading pairs for the country's currency, the Australian dollar.

According to data from Bitcoin Charts, Australian dollar trading is only available on two exchanges, both of which have less than 2,000 BTC in volumes.

Nandwani, however, said Coinbase believes its investment in Australia could prove valuable.

"Even though it might be small, we do think in the future it will be a big market," he said.

Australian kids image via Shutterstock

Disclosure: CoinDesk is a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which has an ownership stake in Coinbase.