Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has updated its information related to Ethereum transitioning to proof-of-stake to include forks that could arise. In a Thursday update to an Aug. 16 blog post, Coinbase said it would evaluate any potential forks in the Ethereum blockchain on a “case by case basis.” The crypto exchange previously said it planned to 'briefly pause' Ether (ETH) and ERC-20 token deposits and withdrawals during the Merge, expected to occur between Sept. 10 and 20. “Should an ETH PoW fork arise following The Merge, this asset will be reviewed with the same rigor as any other asset that is …

Coinbase, a crypto exchange whose chief executive officer previously said doesn’t “advocate for any particular causes or candidates internally that are unrelated to our mission,” has launched a voter registration portal as part of a crypto policy education initiative. In a Thursday blog post, Coinbase chief policy officer Faryar Shirzad said the crypto exchange will offer users the opportunity to register to vote in the United States through a Capitol Canary website. According to the policy head, the voter registration tool was part of an initiative aimed at giving the crypto community “tools to participate in the critical policy discussions …

American cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase aims to grow revenue from subscriptions in the long term to combat potential profit margin compression. The firm’s founder and CEO Brian Armstrong delved into the long-term prospects of the American cryptocurrency exchange in a wide-ranging interview with CNBC’s Crypto World on Aug. 23. A key talking point was the potential of lower revenues from fees in the future and how the company plans to preempt this possibility. Armstrong highlighted his belief that profit margin compression was bound to occur in the future as more exchanges and competitors launch similar products and services which could compete …

Coinbase has launched a new asset in which Ether tokens are staked and wrapped through the crypto exchange. In a Wednesday announcement, Coinbase said it will be listing Coinbase Wrapped Staked ETH (cbETH) on the Ethereum network as an ERC-20 token, allowing customers to use their staked Ether (ETH) while earning rewards on the exchange. According to its website, users can withdraw the tokens to Coinbase, stake them, and then wrap the ETH2 into cbETH, with the new wrapped staked token balance visible on their accounts. The tokens are expected to be available for trading on Aug. 25 “if liquidity …

One user has filed a class-action lawsuit against crypto exchange Coinbase on behalf of account and wallet holders “who have had their accounts breached and incurred losses arising from the unauthorized transfer of assets.” In an Aug. 15 filing in U.S. district court for the Northern District of Georgia, plaintiff George Kattula requested a jury trial against Coinbase, claiming the crypto exchange did not employ practices aimed at keeping users’ accounts secure, and had “improperly and unreasonably” locked clients out of their accounts during periods of peak volatility in the crypto market. In addition, Kattula alleged that Coinbase should be …

Crypto-friendly digital payments giant Paypal has been added to the Travel Rule Universal Solution Technology (TRUST) network, joining a host of big names in crypto that have moved to comply with digital asset travel rules. The announcement comes two months after the payments giant rolled out infrastructure enabling users to transfer, send and receive digital assets between PayPal and other wallets and exchanges in June this year. Prior to that, users were only able to buy and sell crypto within Paypal following the firm’s initial jump into the sector in October 2020. Now you can easily use your crypto with …

Welcome to Finance Redefined, your weekly dose of essential decentralized finance (DeFi) insights — a newsletter crafted to bring you significant developments over the last week. This past week, Celsius’s financial troubles mounted further as a new coin report showed the company had a balance gap of $2.85 billion, more than double what it had shown in the bankruptcy filing. Aave (AAVE) called upon community members to commit to the Ethereum proof-of-stake (PoS) Merge. Coinbase CEO said the exchange would rather wind down its staking services than implement on-chain censorship in the form of regulatory compliance. The crypto market saw …

United States-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has announced it will be temporarily suspending certain token deposits and withdrawals when Ethereum’s core developers transition the blockchain to proof-of-stake, or PoS. In a Tuesday blog post, Coinbase product manager Armin Rezaiean-Asel said during the Merge event, the crypto exchange will “briefly pause” deposits and withdrawals of Ether (ETH) and ERC-20 tokens “as a precautionary measure” to handle the migration. The exchange also warned users against scammers offering ETH2 tokens, saying crypto users did not need to take additional action to receive staked ETH prior to the Merge. “Although the Merge is expected to …

You might not know it, but Canada is quietly becoming a major player in the blockchain and crypto scene: Ethereum has strong Canadian roots, Toronto-based 3iQ launched North America’s first physically-settled Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF) and the percentage of active crypto holders in the country has increased steadily over the past two years. Against this backdrop, I had the pleasure of attending this year’s Blockchain Futurist Conference in Toronto, where I got to moderate two panels on rebuilding the financial system through Web3 and onboarding the next wave of crypto users. The event served as another reminder that the …

Major American cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase saw its long-term issuer credit rating downgraded from BB+ to BB status by rating agency S&P Global following its latest earnings report this year. The agency confirmed the downgrade in a note on Aug. 11, pointing toward Coinbase’s weaker performance in the second quarter of 2022 as a driving factor. Intensified competitive risk in the cryptocurrency exchange sector was also highlighted, with Coinbase losing market share to competitors this year. “The negative outlook reflects uncertainties about the duration of the crypto market downturn and the company's ability to operate efficiently by managing operating expenses prudently.” …

Institutional staking of crypto assets, including the post-Merge Ethereum, could become a “phenomenon” in the future, but not while their assets still need to be “locked up.” Speaking during a Q2 earnings call on Aug. 9, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Alesia Haas noted that she didn’t expect their new exclusive institutional staking service, rolled out in Q2, to be a “near-term phenomenon” until a “truly liquid staking option” is available. “This is the first time we had the products available. Previously, the way that institutions could have access to staking is via Coinbase Cloud [...] But offering it as the …

Tornado Cash (TORN) has lost almost half its market valuation two days after being slapped with sanctions by the U.S. Treasury Department. The department accused Tornado Cash, a crypto mixer platform, of laundering more than $7 billion in cryptocurrencies, including a stash of $455 million allegedly stolen by North Korea-based hackers. Immediate reactions were followed by U.S.-based crypto companies, including Circle and Coinbase. In a controversial move, the popular crypto firms blocked the movements of their jointly-issued stablecoin USDC tied to Tornado Cash's blacklisted smart contracts. TORN price drops 45% The news prompted traders to limit their exposure to TORN, …