Coinbase today announced that it plans to discontinue its advanced, merchant-focused Coinbase Pro service by the end of the year.
The standalone Pro service, which exists independently of Coinbase.com, offered low fees to traders who interacted directly with the Coinbase Exchange order book. It will be replaced by Advanced Trading, a service that offers comparable features but will remain within the main Coinbase app and site.
While Coinbase.com is more user-friendly and accessible to retail users than Coinbase Pro, it Charges flat transaction fees on top of each trade, plus a percentage commission fee, or spread. For this reason, many power users place trades on the more technical Coinbase Pro, and then transfer funds back to their Coinbase.com accounts for zero fees.
one in blog post todayHowever, when shifting the balance back and forth between Coinbase.com and Coinbase Pro, Coinbase cited duplicate features and “friction” as the reason for the latter’s sunset.
Coinbase Pro users mourned the shutdown of the service on Twitter this afternoon, with many citing its low fees.
However, the company is committed to respecting Coinbase Pro’s fee structure in the new Advanced Trading section of Coinbase.com. Advance Trade is already live for desktop users, and Coinbase plans to roll out a mobile version of the feature inside the Coinbase app in the coming weeks.
The news comes as cryptocurrency exchanges rush to retain users and minimize losses in the current brutal bear market. Just today, Coinbase rival BinanceUS announced that it is Eliminating all trading fees on bitcoin trades made with US dollar-backed stablecoins,
Coinbase stock fell nearly 10% today to $51.80, shortly after its rival’s announcement. Stocks on America’s most popular cryptocurrency exchange have dropped nearly 80% of their value since January.
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