Cody McGrath 
BNB Chain and Avalanche have been added to Coinbase Wallet’s list of supported networks, giving traders access to tokens not listed on the exchange.
Coinbase has added the BNB Chain (formerly Binance Smart Chain) and Avalanche to the Coinbase Wallet’s list of supported networks where users can swap and store cryptocurrencies.
According to the exchange’s May 24 blog post, the new functionality will provide access to “thousands of tokens,” representing a “greater variety than most traditional centralized exchanges can offer.”
The addition of BNB Chain and Avalanche (AVAX) functionality brings the total number of supported networks to four, including Ethereum (ETH) and Polygon (MATIC). Coinbase’s in-app decentralized exchange (DEX) on four networks is available to wallet users who want to trade on-chain. Token bridging is currently unavailable.
Coinbase Wallet, as opposed to Coinbase’s centralized platform, allows users to self-custody their crypto and provides access to on-chain features.
Coinbase currently lists 173 tokens on its exchange. These figures pale in comparison to the thousands of options available across the four networks to Coinbase Wallet users. The exchange stated that “we will be making it possible to conduct swaps on an even greater variety of networks” in the coming months.
“Not only will trading expand, but we’re also planning to add support for network bridging, allowing you to seamlessly move tokens across multiple networks.”
Network bridging is the process of sending tokens between networks without using a centralized exchange (CEX). Multichain and Wormhole are two popular token bridges.
Coinbase is also rolling out its Web3 wallet and browser for the mobile app, though only for a limited number of users at first. This will provide mobile traders with access to a diverse ecosystem of DEXes on supported networks other than Coinbase’s own.
According to CoinGecko, BNB Chain had $74 billion in trading volume over the last 24 hours, while Avalanche had $68.5 billion.