Coinbase, a San Francisco based leading bitcoin exchange and wallet service, has announced that it is adding support for ether – the native cryptocurrency of the Ethereum network. Trading will commence on 24th May, CoinDesk reported.

With this, Coinbase becomes the latest cryptocurrency exchange to join others who have announced their support for ether trading in the past couple of weeks including Japanese bitcoin exchange Coincheck, Hong Kong-based bitcoin exchange Bitfinex, Mexican Bitcoin exchange Bitso, Chinese Bitcoin exchange CHBTC, Poland-based Bitcoin and Litecoin trading platform BitBay and many others.

Ethereum has been receiving lot of interest among digital currency traders lately, particularly since its market cap crossed the $1 billion mark briefly earlier this year. At the time of writing, Ethereum’s market cap has once again surpassed the $1 billion mark, with ether trading at $14.72 levels.

Initially, traders on Coinbase's exchange platform will be able to buy and sell ethers. The company will add support for the digital currency to all Coinbase users later this summer.

Coinbase to rebrand as GDAX

Speaking with CoinDesk, Coinbase vice president of business development Adam White revealed plans to rebrand Coinbase's exchange service with a new name and logo, adding:

"In addition to better highlighting the exchange that Coinbase is becoming we’re rebranding as GDAX, which stands for Global Digital Asset Exchange."

In a response to BitcoinX on Reddit, Coinbase co-founder Fred Ehrsam clarified that the Coinbase exchange (exchange.coinbase.com) is re-branding, and not Coinbase.com. Coinbase.com will remain with the Coinbase branding.

White further said that Coinbase team has for long stayed apprised of the Ethereum project, adding that the company is also paying close attention to The DAO project.