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Posted on October 21, 2020Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) is now available on Coinbase
Starting today, Coinbase supports Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) at Coinbase.com and in the Coinbase Android and iOS apps. Coinbase customers can now buy, sell, convert, send, receive, or store WBTC. WBTC is available in all Coinbase-supported regions, with the exception of New York State.
Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC)
Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) is an Ethereum token that is intended to represent Bitcoin (BTC) on the Ethereum blockchain. It is not Bitcoin, but rather a separate ERC-20 token that’s designed to track Bitcoin’s value. WBTC was created to allow Bitcoin holders to participate in decentralized finance (“DeFi”) apps that are popular on Ethereum. Through a WBTC partner, 1 Bitcoin can be exchanged for 1 Wrapped Bitcoin, and vice-versa. The BTC that backs WBTC is verifiable through a “proof of reserve” system that verifies the 1:1 backing between minted WBTC tokens and Bitcoin stored by custodians. WBTC is maintained by a group called the WBTC DAO that consists of over 30 members. It was originally started by BitGo, Ren, and Kyber.
One of the most common requests we hear from customers is to be able to buy and sell more cryptocurrencies on Coinbase. We announced a process for listing assets, designed in part to accelerate the addition of more cryptocurrencies. We are also investing in new tools to help people understand and explore cryptocurrencies. We launched informational asset pages (see WBTC here), as well as a new section of the Coinbase website to answer common questions about crypto.
Customers can sign up for a Coinbase account here to buy, sell, convert, send, receive, or store WBTC today.
Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) is now available on Coinbase was originally published in The Coinbase Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
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Posted on October 16, 2020Coinbase Custody explores support for new digital assets
We are continuing to explore the addition of custody support for new assets for customers around the world.
Coinbase Custody is one of the world’s largest and most trusted crypto custodians. Since its inception, it has focused on providing a highly secure and sophisticated storage solution for institutions and individuals that hold large crypto holdings. In addition to industry-leading security and insurance protection, Coinbase Custody has remained on the leading edge of crypto-native features such as staking, governance and decentralized finance (DeFi). We have built a system that is secure, and reliable, but also has the features and functionality that most traders and financial institutions are looking for.
Over the coming months, we plan to support more assets and launch new features that will continue to demonstrate that Coinbase Custody is one of the most trusted and innovative places for institutions to store their crypto assets.
Part of growing the cryptoeconomy, Coinbase Custody will also be exploring ways to serve more institutional clients across the Asia-Pacific region. Most recently, Coinbase Custody has added support for FTX (FTT) and Serum (SRM).
While not all assets, chains and features will be available in all regions, a full list of digital assets that Coinbase Custody is exploring is below.
Aave (AAVE), Amp (AMP), Ampleforth (AMPL), Ankr (ANKR), ArCoin (ArCoin), Audius (AUDS), Barnbridge (BOND), BitTorrent Token (BTT), Centrifuge (RAD), Conflux Network (CFX), Curve (CRV), DFI.Money (YFII), Elrond Gold (EGLD), JUST (JST), JUST Stablecoin (USDJ), Meta (MTA), MovieBloc (MBL), mStable (MUSD), Neo (NEO), Nervos (CKB), Nexus Mutual (NXM), NKN (NKN), NuCypher (NU), Ontology (ONT), Paxos Gold (PAXG), Paxos Standard (PAX), Reserve (RSV), Reserve Rights (RSR), Request Network (REQ), Skale (SKL), SUN Token (SUN), tBTC (TBTC), Terra (LUNA), The Graph (GRT), Tron (TRX), VeChain (VET), WING (WING), WINK (WIN), Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC)
Our decision to support any asset for custody requires significant technical and compliance review and may be subject to regulatory approval in some jurisdictions. We therefore cannot guarantee whether or when any above-listed asset will be available for Coinbase Custody in any jurisdiction. We will add custody support jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction, subject to applicable review and authorizations. The omission of assets from this publication does not disqualify any such asset from active review and potential custody support.
Our customers can expect Coinbase Custody to make future, similar announcements as we continue to explore the addition of numerous assets.
Coinbase Custody offers one of the most sophisticated and reliable crypto custody solutions in the world. To learn more about Coinbase Custody click here.
- Assets supported by Coinbase Custody are not guaranteed to be listed on Coinbase trading platforms.
Please note Coinbase is an investor in the following crypto projects: Audius (AUDS), Curve (CRV), Reserve (RSV), Reserve Rights (RSR), tBTC (TBTC) and The Graph (GRT). Coinbase intends to maintain its investment in these entities for the foreseeable future and maintains internal policies that address the timing of permissible disposition of any related digital assets, if applicable. Decisions to support any asset will never be based on Coinbase’s investments and all assets follow a standard review process.
Coinbase Custody explores support for new digital assets was originally published in The Coinbase Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
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Posted on October 16, 2020Transparency at Coinbase
By Paul Grewal, Chief Legal Officer
Coinbase believes that trust is built through transparency and honesty. As we continue on our journey to becoming the most trusted venue for anyone to interact with the cryptoeconomy, today we’re releasing a Transparency Report that shares insights into how we handle legitimate government requests for some customer data.
Coinbase believes in protecting the financial privacy of our customers. As part of our commitment to being the most trusted place to engage with cryptocurrency, we work every day to ensure customer information remains safe and secure from compromise, inappropriate use, or unnecessary disclosure.
This includes keeping our customers informed about the information they entrust to us. In that spirit, today we are releasing our first Transparency Report. The report summarizes government requests that Coinbase received for customer account information during the first half of 2020.
First, some context
Coinbase currently serves more than 38 million customers worldwide. Like other global financial services and technology companies, we regularly receive requests from law enforcement and government agencies seeking customer account information and financial records in connection with civil, criminal, or other investigative matters. These requests largely come in the form of subpoenas, but may also include search warrants, court orders, and other formal processes. When these requests are valid under financial regulations and other applicable laws, Coinbase has an obligation to respond.
As a financial institution with a duty to detect and prevent prohibited activity on its platform, we respect the legitimate interests of government authorities in pursuing bad actors who abuse others and our platform. Yet we will not hesitate to push back where appropriate, even when it is inconvenient or costly to do so. That’s why each request we receive is handled by a team of experienced specialists in accordance with set procedures to confirm the validity of the request and narrow or object to requests that are overly broad.
What to expect going forward
We believe transparency is a critical part of accountability and maintaining customer trust. That is why we plan to continue releasing these reports on a regular basis. While we are restricted from disclosing some of the information requests we receive, over time we hope to update and improve our reports with additional information, resources, and observations to provide more granular insights into our government response process.
A final point: while transparency reports have become more common in tech, they remain rare in financial services. We think it is important not just for cryptocurrency companies, but for fintechs and banks at large to shed light on financial data sharing practices and contribute to the understanding of industry trends in a meaningful way.
Coinbase Transparency Report — Period: Jan 1, 2020 — June 30, 2020
Total Requests Received: 1,914
Insights
- ~58% of all requests come from US agencies
- ~90% of all requests come from three jurisdictions: the U.S., UK, and Germany
- ~16% of all U.S. requests come from state or local authorities
Transparency at Coinbase was originally published in The Coinbase Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
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Posted on October 15, 2020Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) is launching on Coinbase Pro
On Monday October 19, transfer WBTC into your Coinbase Pro account ahead of trading. Support for WBTC will be available in all Coinbase’s supported jurisdictions, with the exception of New York State. Transfers will open during business hours, Pacific time.
One of the most common requests we receive from customers is to be able to trade more assets on our platform. Per the terms of our listing process, we anticipate supporting more assets that meet our standards over time. Most recently we have added trading support for Balancer (BAL), Ren (REN), Uniswap (UNI), yearn.finance (YFI), Loopring (LRC), UMA (UMA) Celo (CGLD), Numeraire (NMR), Band (BAND), Compound (COMP), Maker (MKR) and OmiseGo (OMG), along with supporting additional European and UK order books. Coinbase continues to explore support for new digital assets.
On Monday October 19, we will begin accepting inbound transfers of WBTC to Coinbase Pro. Trading will begin on or after 9AM Pacific Time (PT) Tuesday October 20, if liquidity conditions are met.
Once sufficient supply of WBTC is established on the platform, trading on our WBTC-USD and WBTC-BTC order books will launch in four phases, transfer-only, post-only, limit-only and full trading. If at any point one of the new order books does not meet our assessment for a healthy and orderly market, we may keep the book in one state for a longer period of time or suspend trading as per our Trading Rules.
We will publish tweets from our Coinbase Pro Twitter account as each order book moves through the phases.
Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) is an Ethereum token that represents Bitcoin (BTC) on the Ethereum blockchain. Through a WBTC partner, 1 Bitcoin can be converted to 1 Wrapped Bitcoin, and vice-versa. WBTC was created to allow Bitcoin holders to participate in decentralized finance (“DeFi”) apps that are popular on Ethereum. The BTC that backs WBTC is transparently verifiable through a “proof of reserve” system that verifies the 1:1 backing between minted WBTC tokens and Bitcoin stored by custodians. WBTC is maintained by a group called the WBTC DAO that now consists of over 30 members. It was originally started by BitGo, Ren, and Kyber.
Please note that WBTC is not yet available on Coinbase.com or via our Consumer mobile apps. We will make a separate announcement if and when this support is added.
You can sign up for a Coinbase Pro account here to start trading. For more information on trading WTBC on Coinbase Pro, visit our support page.
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All images provided herein are by Coinbase.
Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) is launching on Coinbase Pro was originally published in The Coinbase Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
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Posted on October 15, 2020Coinbase will sponsor two Bitcoin Core developers with first Crypto Community Fund grants
By Manish Gupta, EVP of Engineering
As part of our Crypto Community Fund, Coinbase plans to sponsor at least two Bitcoin developers, who contribute directly to the Bitcoin Core codebase or closely associated Bitcoin projects. We are beginning our search for grant recipients starting today.
We believe helping to connect and grow the cryptoeconomy is essential to building an open financial system for the world. Our Crypto Community Fund aims to grow and improve the entire crypto industry, while making it simpler to use and more secure for everyone. If successful, we intend to expand the program to other types of projects and crypto communities.
Unlike most cryptocurrency projects, Bitcoin launched without a fundraise, while bootstrapping an entire industry. The open source community has provided critical support for Bitcoin development, with some support from donations from industry organizations and academic institutions. Our goal is to similarly support developers who are committed to growing and maintaining the Bitcoin ecosystem.
If you’d like to apply or nominate a Bitcoin core developer to be sponsored, please fill out this form. Proposals will be shortlisted by current Bitcoin Core developers and important community members, with Coinbase making the final decision. For Bitcoin projects, our advisory board includes Dan Boneh, Carla Kirk-Cohen, Anthony Towns, Amiti Uttarwar, Felix Weis.
We’re excited to fund projects nearly anywhere in the world. While we aim to focus on year-long developer grants, we also encourage people or teams with shorter projects in mind to apply. If successful, we hope to grow the crypto community fund over time.
Example projects we will consider supporting:
- Direct contributions to Bitcoin Core (e.g., improving testing, fuzzing, bug fixes, improvements)
- Significant code and/or Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP) review
- Contributor tooling (e.g., bitcoinacks.com, which is open source)
- Bitcoin Core libraries and tools (e.g., libsecp256k1)
- Improvement to testing (e.g., fuzz testing, functional tests)
We encourage all Bitcoin developers and prospective Bitcoin developers to apply for the first grants from the Crypto Community Fund. To apply, please fill out this form.
Coinbase will sponsor two Bitcoin Core developers with first Crypto Community Fund grants was originally published in The Coinbase Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
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Posted on October 15, 2020Coinbase Custody now supports Filecoin ($FIL)
Coinbase Custody now supports Filecoin (FIL). As announced in April, we are proud to continue adding support for the assets our clients care about. Adding at-launch support for Filecoin is another step toward achieving Coinbase’s mission to create an open financial system for the world.
Filecoin is a decentralized storage network and marketplace designed to store humanity’s most important information. Miners earn Filecoin tokens by renting open hard drive space, and clients pay miners to store and retrieve their data. Coinbase Custody is excited to support this next step in the cryptoeconomy. Visit filecoin.io to learn more.
“We’re thrilled that Coinbase Custody is providing secure custody for FIL. Coinbase has a great track record of building new, innovative tools for its users.” Juan Benet, Filecoin project founder
With nearly 500 clients and over $15 billion in crypto assets stored, Coinbase Custody is one of the world’s largest and most trusted institutional crypto custodians. Launched in 2018, Coinbase Custody offers clients access to the same secure, institutional-grade offline storage solution that has been used by Coinbase’s trading platforms for more than seven years. Coinbase Custody operates as a New York State-chartered limited purpose trust company that is built on Coinbase’s crypto-first DNA. Coinbase Custody offers one of the most sophisticated and reliable crypto custody solutions in the world. With support for over 70 assets, we are always looking to add more. To learn more about Coinbase Custody click here.
Coinbase Custody now supports Filecoin ($FIL) was originally published in The Coinbase Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
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Posted on October 13, 2020Trade crypto immediately with instant USD deposits
By Linda Xie, Product Manager
Crypto markets move quickly and the right moment to buy is often fleeting. Coinbase Pro is committed to offering the best, and fastest, crypto trading experience for our customers. Part of that is removing friction between the intent to trade and the order being executed. Starting today, US customers will be able to deposit up to $25,000/daily, without fees, and have it instantly available for trading on Coinbase Pro.
Historically, customers had to wait 5–7 days for ACH deposits to settle before funds were available to trade. With instant USD deposits, we are taking away that friction and enabling US customers to trade without waiting.
We have also increased the daily deposit limit of $25,000 for all verified Coinbase Pro users.
You can sign up for a Coinbase Pro account here to start trading. To make an instant USD deposit, open Coinbase Pro, select Deposit and follow the on-screen instructions.
All images provided herein are by Coinbase. All trademarks are property of their respective owners.
Trade crypto immediately with instant USD deposits was originally published in The Coinbase Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
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Posted on October 12, 2020Introducing crypto purchases inside Coinbase Wallet
By Sid Coelho-Prabhu, Group Product Manager
At Coinbase, we believe growing the cryptoeconomy is a key step to building an open financial system for the world. One of the ways we do this is by supporting new decentralized app (dapp) ecosystems with products like Coinbase Wallet (or simply “Wallet”), our self-custody crypto wallet app.
Starting today, Wallet users can sign-up for and purchase cryptocurrencies from Coinbase.com right within their Wallet apps.
- As of today, most of the assets supported on Coinbase.com are available to purchase within Wallet.
- The new feature is available on Android devices in the US. We will soon expand services to iOS and more countries.
- Wallet supports debit card purchases of crypto from Coinbase.com, with more payment methods coming soon.
You can now sign up for a Coinbase.com account and make a purchase directly inside Wallet Wallet allows users in every part of the world to store their own crypto and use popular dapps like Compound and Uniswap. However, until now, anyone new to crypto had to buy their first cryptocurrency from an exchange, and then transfer it over manually to their Wallet apps. This created a lengthy and complicated onboarding experience for new Wallet users who are excited to get started with the open financial system. With today’s launch, whether you want to start using a dapp, send crypto to friends, or just store your own crypto, getting started with Wallet is much easier.
Existing Coinbase.com customers can also link to their Wallet accounts, and the feature is completely optional. All Wallet features will remain available to users even without linked Coinbase.com accounts.
An easy way to get started with DeFi and dapps
For dapp developers, we’ve created the best 0 to 1 experience to get their users started with their dapps. Coinbase Wallet is already a leading wallet for accessing DeFi and dapps. Now, with the addition of a simple and secure fiat onramp service, developers can build dapps with just one easy app install for their users.
We’re always listening to our users and welcome feedback and troubleshooting questions via our help center.
Introducing crypto purchases inside Coinbase Wallet was originally published in The Coinbase Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
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Posted on October 12, 2020Easily Convert Crypto on Coinbase Commerce using Coinbase.com
By John Zettler, Senior Product Manager
At Coinbase, our mission is to create an open financial system for the world. One of the ways we will achieve this is by helping connect as many participants in the cryptoeconomy as possible.
Connecting the cryptoeconomy will enable our customers to do more with their crypto, whether it be sending, borrowing, earning, or spending. With Coinbase Commerce, we’re building the most trusted and secure way for merchants anywhere in the world to accept cryptocurrency payments, and in turn enabling more ways for customers to spend their crypto.
Starting today, all Coinbase Commerce customers can easily connect their Coinbase.com accounts to sell their crypto for a more stable store of value. Many customers have been requesting a faster way to convert their crypto payments, and until today, Commerce merchants needed to transfer their crypto to an exchange prior to selling their crypto for cash or stablecoins. Now merchants can easily convert their crypto payments into USD, EUR, GBP, or USD Coin (our US Dollar-backed stablecoin) without leaving the Commerce product.
Getting started is simple. First, merchants can connect their Coinbase.com accounts to their Commerce accounts. For merchants who predominantly use Coinbase Prime or Coinbase Pro accounts, those connections are coming soon.
Second, when merchants are ready to withdraw their crypto, they’ll be able to choose their settlement currency and convert their funds for a 1% fee. The proceeds will arrive in their accounts shortly thereafter.
This year we also released custom branding for all merchants, easier refund support, DAI support, and Spanish-language support. Accepting crypto payments with Coinbase Commerce has never been easier. Learn more by visiting our help center.
We’re always listening to our merchants and building the best products to meet their needs. Have feedback on how to improve Coinbase Commerce? Please let us know here.
Easily Convert Crypto on Coinbase Commerce using Coinbase.com was originally published in The Coinbase Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
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Posted on October 8, 2020A follow up to Coinbase as a “mission focused” company
A follow up to Coinbase being a mission focused company
Last week, I shared that Coinbase is a mission focused company. The post received quite a bit of attention, and sparked a lot of debate about how companies should operate.
We subsequently decided to make a generous exit package available to any employee who didn’t feel they could be on board with this direction. Today, I sent the following email to the company. Hopefully it sheds some light on how it has unfolded.
Hi team,
I wanted to send you a follow up now that the deadline has passed for people opting in to the exit package.
I know there have been many difficult conversations happening to help clarify what our apolitical culture means in practice. It’s been great to see the whole team come together to reach understanding here, and support each other through it. It’s not easy to get through, but I think it will result in us having a stronger and more united team.
I also want to acknowledge that we could have done a better job bringing the Operating Group and managers along on this clarification of our culture so everyone was prepared before it went out to a wider group. Our practices will continue to evolve as we grow as a business, and we’ll work to do a better job on this in the future.
Many of you are probably curious about the outcome. I wanted to share that about 5% of employees (60) have decided to take the exit package. There are a handful of other conversations still ongoing, so the final number will likely be a bit higher. For those of you who have decided to move on, I want to thank you for your contributions to Coinbase and we wish you the very best. And for those of you who are opting in to the next chapter, I want to thank you for your trust and commitment to this mission. I’m excited to build the future with all of you.
I’ve heard a concern from some of you that this clarification would disproportionately impact our under-represented minority population at Coinbase. It was reassuring to see that people from under-represented groups at Coinbase have not taken the exit package in numbers disproportionate to the overall population. We’ll continue to keep a close eye on this to ensure we are building a diverse, inclusive environment where everyone feels they belong.
Finally, I saw a few misconceptions pop up in public responses. And I know many of you have had friends and family read various articles and send them your way. I thought I would take a minute to address a few of them.
Isn’t crypto inherently political?
Yes, we are ok being political about this one particular area because it relates to our mission.
Do employees have to pretend politics don’t exist?
No, we support each other through tough times and also have conversations about recent events like any team. We have just made a decision to not engage in broader activism as a company outside of our mission.
How will I know what counts as political?
We recognize it’s a blurry line, and ask that employees use good judgment. Our goal is not to look for violations, but rather to support employees in adapting to these clarified expectations.
Does Coinbase just stand for making a profit?
No, we stand for accomplishing the mission and for creating a great place to work. Growing revenue and profit is the only way we will be able to grow our team to build all the things that are needed to accomplish the mission. And we need an environment that is welcoming to everyone to attract and retain team members.
Hopefully these clarifications help clear up any remaining misunderstandings. To help create the same clarity for our external audience and prospective candidates, I’ll be posting this email to the Coinbase blog a bit later today. If you still have questions or would like to discuss further, I encourage you to reach out to your manager, HRBP, or me directly.
While having team members leave is never easy, I think we will emerge as a more aligned company from this. From time to time we need to rearticulate and clarify our cultural norms as we continue scaling. I’m excited to be moving forward as #OneCoinbase to pursue our vision of economic freedom for every person and business.
Thank you,
BrianA follow up to Coinbase as a “mission focused” company was originally published in The Coinbase Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
