Why Did This Major Crypto Exchange Remove Native Bitcoin Payments?

8 months ago 4

ARTICLE AD BOX

An executive for prominent cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has announced that it has made the tough call to remove native Bitcoin and other UTXO support.

Lauren Dowling, the product lead for Coinbase Commerce, stated that customers were facing operational challenges with the product.

Coinbase Commerce Stops Offering Native Bitcoin Payments

In a series of posts on X (formerly Twitter), Dowling emphasized that customers were facing significant challenges with Coinbase Commerce due to crypto volatility risk, manual effort required to resolve incorrect payments, and limited asset support.

Dowling clarified that to tackle these issues, they developed an on-chain payments protocol utilizing smart contracts and other tools to enable seamless off-chain commerce.

“In addressing these concerns, we saw an opportunity to build an open onchain payments protocol leveraging smart contracts and other EVM tools to enable seamless onchain commerce without the operational and financial burdens of the old system.”

However, Dowling notes that the exchange is constantly exploring other ways to bring payment solutions to customers, including the use of the Lightning Network and Solana.

Stock Price, Amid Coinbase Commerce Dropping Native Bitcoin Payments

Meanwhile, Coinbase’s stock price recently surged following positive remarks from a major investment bank.

COIN rose 10% after JPMorgan upgraded the exchange’s stock to neutral. The bank’s expert sees potential for COIN, given its strong links to the sustained Bitcoin price momentum.

JPMorgan analyst Kenneth Worthington upgraded COIN to neutral from underweight as Bitcoin touches $52,400.

Read more: Who Owns the Most Bitcoin in 2024?

Meanwhile, Coinbase customers are advised to be cautious over clicking on any email links claiming to be from Coinbase. There is a likely chance that it could be a scam in an attempt to steal all their crypto.

However, the scheme is known as the Coinbase reset fraud. It involves crypto scammers gathering personal information from users to deceive them into resetting their Coinbase login credentials. BeInCrypto recently reported that these scammers deprived a victim of over 1,400 ETH, valued at an estimated $4 million.