In response to the Wall Street Journal

Tl:dr Earlier today, the Wall Street Journal published an article highlighting client-driven activities, which they seem to confuse with proprietary trading.

Unlike many of our competitors, Coinbase does not operate a proprietary trading business or act as a market maker. In fact, one of the competitive strengths of our Institutional Prime platform is our agency only trading model, where we act only on behalf of our clients. As a result, our incentives and our clients’ incentives are aligned by design.

Coinbase does, from time to time, purchase cryptocurrency as principal, including for our corporate treasury and operational purposes*. We do not view this as proprietary trading because its purpose is not for Coinbase to benefit from short-term increases in value of the cryptocurrency being traded.

Expanding institutional participation in web3 beyond HODLing

As more institutions have become interested in investing in crypto, we are rolling out new solutions to help. One way we intend to serve our institutional clients is through a small newly formed team called Coinbase Risk Solutions (CRS).

CRS offers solutions to sophisticated institutional investors who seek exposure to the crypto asset class. Some of these investors are still getting familiar with crypto markets and ask for our assistance in managing risks and participating in protocols. The goal of CRS is to expand institutional participation in web3 beyond HODLing.

In doing this, we are following a well trodden path on Wall Street where financial services firms provide clients multiple ways to get exposure to new asset classes and manage certain risks. We have tools and policies in place that mirror best practices in the financial services industry and are designed to manage conflicts of interest.

*In December of 2021 we accurately outlined our investment activity in digital assets as part of our testimony to Congress, which you can find here.

In response to the Wall Street Journal was originally published in The Coinbase Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Coinbase gains regulatory approval in the Netherlands

Tl;Dr: Coinbase becomes the first major global crypto exchange to successfully register with the Dutch Central Bank (De Nederlandsche Bank — DNB), allowing us to offer our crypto products and services to the Dutch market.

By Nana Murugesan, Vice President, International and Business Development

Hoi, Nederland!

We are excited to announce that Coinbase has successfully registered with the Dutch Central Bank (De Nederlandsche Bank — DNB) as a crypto service provider. This registration will allow Coinbase to offer our full suite of retail, institutional, and ecosystem products to customers in the Netherlands. We are proud to be the first major global crypto exchange to receive DNB registration approval — a significant milestone in Coinbase’s continued international expansion.

Coinbase views regulation of the industry as an “enabler” for crypto’s growth, setting clear ground rules that will create an environment which encourages innovation and strengthens trust in the sector from both the public and policymakers.

“As part of Coinbase’s ambition to be the world’s most trusted and secure crypto platform, we have taken strides to work collaboratively with government, policymakers and regulators to shape the future in a responsible way. Coinbase prides itself on being a compliance-led business. The Netherlands is a critical international market for crypto, and I am really excited for Coinbase to bring the potential of the crypto economy to the market here,” said Nana Murugesan, Vice President, International and Business Development at Coinbase.

Coinbase serves customers across almost 40 European countries through dedicated hubs in Ireland, the UK, and Germany. Additional registrations or license applications are in progress in several major markets, in compliance with local regulations.

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Coinbase Europe Limited and Coinbase Custody International Ltd are listed in DNB’s public register as a crypto service provider. DNB supervises Coinbase Europe Limited and Coinbase Custody International Ltd in compliance with the Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorist Financing Act (Wet ter voorkoming van witwassen en financiering van terrorisme — Wwft) and the Sanctions Act (Sanctiewet 1977 — Sw). The crypto services of Coinbase are not subject to prudential supervision by DNB or conduct supervision by the AFM. This means that financial operational risks in respect of the crypto services are not monitored and there is no specific financial consumer protection.

Coinbase gains regulatory approval in the Netherlands 🇳🇱 was originally published in The Coinbase Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Coinbase Cloud launches platform for web3 developers

Starting today, developers have free and instant blockchain API access with Node by Coinbase Cloud

TL;DR: Coinbase Cloud enables web3 developers to build their web3 applications with instant and reliable read/write blockchain access using Node.

By Luv Kothari, Group Product Manager, Coinbase Cloud; Sriram Raman, Product Manager, Coinbase Cloud

Web3 development is complex. One needs to learn new programming languages, blockchain technologies, and on top of that, there are many protocols to support. Coinbase Cloud is committed to helping Web3 developers do what they do best… BUIDL. That’s why we’re taking our experience developing Web3 products for DeFi, staking and blockchain infrastructure and making this technology accessible for free to developers around the world, starting with the launch of Node.

Node empowers developers to build and monitor their Web3 applications from an easy-to-use platform with instant read/write access to blockchains and powerful data indexers to speed up responses.

Node, formerly known as Query & Transact, has been serving dedicated, paid nodes to enterprises for read/write access to 25+ blockchains since 2020.

Since then, we’ve been listening to the developer community and heard a demand for a developer version of Node. Which is why we are launching a free plan for developers building on Ethereum, providing self-serve and instant accessibility to blockchain nodes via API. Additionally, we are launching new Advanced APIs to simplify querying the blockchain and powerful new NFT APIs to developers around the world.

Available with Node

Node developer platform provides self-serve API access credentials, metrics dashboards to monitor and manage web3 projects, and developer resources to get started with web3 development.

• Build faster: Build and launch your Web3 application in minutes with Node instant API access.
• Reduce costs & complexity: Save on upfront costs and scale seamlessly as your usage needs grow. Node allows you to focus on your products and customers leaving the hard bits of scaling blockchain infrastructure to us.
• Rely on trusted services: Build your product with peace of mind, relying on enterprise-grade security and high availability infrastructure.
• Advanced APIs: Abstract away the complexities of building on the blockchain with aggregated and filtered data in one API call. Easy-to-use queries provide comprehensive data for balances, transfers, and smart contract events.
• NFT API: Build your NFT app with a few lines of code. Get the answers you need to the most critical NFT questions including data about collections, user transactions, and tokens.
• 120K daily requests: Intended to be enough to reach meaningful adoption without incurring upfront costs for infrastructure*. If you need more capacity you can upgrade to another available plan.

Node is available starting today around the world. We believe the most exciting projects in web3 are on the horizon and we can’t wait to see what the community builds! Get started for free.

Coinbase Cloud

Coinbase Cloud makes it simple to build dapps. In addition to shared and dedicated nodes, Coinbase Cloud offers a fiat on-ramp with Pay SDK, trading APIs, Wallet SDK, and more. Our vision is to provide everything devs need to quickly, easily, and securely build amazing web3 apps.

Get started with Node on Coinbase Cloud or check out the developer documentation for more information.

*This is not a guarantee. Needs may vary significantly on a case-by-case basis.

Features and services may vary depending on the selected plan, and some plans may be subject to subscription fees and/or additional fees, costs or customized pricing.

Legalese/Disclaimers

This document and the information contained herein is not a recommendation or endorsement of any digital asset, protocol, network, or project. However, Coinbase may have, or may in the future have, a significant financial interest in, and may receive compensation for services related to one or more of the digital assets, protocols, networks, entities, projects, and/or ventures discussed herein. The risk of loss in cryptocurrency, including staking, can be substantial and nothing herein is intended to be a guarantee against the possibility of loss.

This document and the content contained herein are based on information which is believed to be reliable and has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, but Coinbase makes no representation or warranty, express, or implied, as to the fairness, accuracy, adequacy, reasonableness, or completeness of such information, and, without limiting the foregoing or anything else in this disclaimer, all information provided herein is subject to modification by the underlying protocol network.

Any use of Coinbase’s services may be contingent on completion of Coinbase’s onboarding process and is Coinbase’s sole discretion, including entrance into applicable legal documentation and will be, at all times, subject to and governed by Coinbase’s policies, including without limitation, its terms of service and privacy policy, as may be amended from time to time.

Coinbase Cloud launches platform for web3 developers was originally published in The Coinbase Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

What Web3 Identity Needs

TL;DR: To create an open financial system for the world, we need to ensure web3 is usable by everyone. This means building an identity experience that’s intuitive, forgiving, and trustworthy, combining the best of web2 and web3. Our first step is to make it easy for anyone to claim a web3 (ENS) username for free, but there’s more work to be done.

By Alex Reeve, Group Product Manager, Identity

If you’ve used crypto, you’ve probably experienced the anxiety that comes from sending tokens or NFTs to intimidating 42-character addresses like 0x2133a64a3bE8B64827B26B08e166d0b478bd09D3. To make this easier, we worked with Ethereum Name Service (ENS) to allow users to claim “name.cb.id” usernames using Coinbase Wallet’s browser extension.

In order to create an open financial system for the world, we need to ensure that people from all walks of life can use web3. Fostering adoption of a human-readable username standard is a key part of making web3 user-friendly for everyone. With this feature, anyone can now claim a free “name.cb.id” web3 username to send and receive crypto (instead of using 42-character addresses), engage with others, and to use as the foundation of their web3 identity.

While this is an important milestone, your username is only part of your online identity. There are other identity-related gaps to fill before web3 is usable by billions of people. While web3 has early promise, it’s often unintuitive, and it lacks viable ways of conveying and assessing trust and legitimacy. To fill these gaps, we need to combine the convenience of web2 with the privacy, security, and control of web3.

What is identity? Why does it matter?

When you create an account or sign in to a product, you’re using your identity to gain access. Identity is how products and platforms represent people, manage access and authorization, and assess trust. Identity has three core parts:

1. Representation: how you’re represented as a user (e.g. your username and profile).

2. Access: proving that you’re the owner of said identity (e.g. signing in) to get access to the product.

3. Authorization: determining what you’re allowed to access based on who you are.

With web3 today, you’re represented by a wallet address or username like nick.eth or nick.cb.id. You access web3 by using your seed phrase to configure your wallet or recover access to your wallet. Specific tokens or NFTs can authorize you to access exclusive communities, merchandise drops, and more.

Hasn’t web2 already solved this problem?

Web2 companies have invested heavily in developing intuitive and convenient identity products. But the cracks in web2 identity are starting to show: the need to manage multiple accounts and passwords; having to fend off relentless spam; and the insidious lack of privacy, security, and control.

Many of us have exchanged privacy, security, and control for convenience. We only become aware of web2’s downsides when we’re impacted by a data breach, organizational overreach, or loss of access. But in today’s world, these events are becoming inevitabilities.

What does web3 need to thrive?

Basic customer needs are the same for web2 and web3 identity. The difference is how they’re met. Web2 is centralized, providing convenience and flexibility at the cost of privacy, security, and control. Web3 is trustless and decentralized, but it has usability gaps. For web3 to thrive, we need to combine the best of both (flexibility and usability without sacrificing privacy, security or control) and create an experience that’s:

• Intuitive. It needs to be easy for every user to transact and engage with others through human-readable usernames rather than intimidating 42-character addresses.
• Forgiving. Every user needs security, and they need a way to recover access without being reliant on safely storing a sensitive recovery phrase — where a single mistake can cost someone their livelihood.
• Trustworthy. People need to be able to understand whether the person or app they’re interacting with is trustworthy, and apps and people need tools to demonstrate trust to others.

Evolving web3 identity

Web3 has the opportunity to address many of web2’s flaws. With crypto, you control the keys to your identity and your security is in your own hands. But let’s be realistic: web3 as it exists today is intimidating. So what do we, the web3 community, need to build to make the benefits of web3 available to everyone?

An identity for the user.

We need to make it easy to define and manage portable, interoperable, human-readable usernames that sit on rich, customizable public identities ranging from anonymous to fully public. Users should be able to maintain multiple identities for different contexts (e.g. one for work and one for gaming).

Tools to help everyone stay secure and feel secure.

Today, web3 violates one of the cardinal laws of security in that our identities are vulnerable to a single point of failure: the recovery phrase. A compromised app, device, or a social engineering attack can lead to identity theft. Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is the quintessential web2 example, and web3 will need an equivalent solution that can protect every user.

Recovery for when something goes wrong.

We’ve all forgotten a password at some point, and we shouldn’t expect recovery phrases to be any different. We can’t scale an ecosystem where losing a recovery phrase can cost someone access to their livelihood — users need ways of regaining access. Products like social recovery or the multi-party computation (MPC) technology that powers Coinbase’s dapp wallet are creating more forgiving experiences that can enable broader web3 adoption.

Signals for trust and legitimacy.

Passports only work because governments attest to their legitimacy. The utility of web3 identity will also rely on trusted parties attesting to the legitimacy of an identity. Users will need ways of collecting, managing, and communicating “attestations” that validate their credentials and legitimacy. Applications will need ways of both issuing and verifying the legitimacy of a user’s identity and credentials.

Interoperability across web2 and web3.

Over time, the concepts of “web2” and “web3” will blur and users who are later on the adoption curve won’t see a clear difference between the two. They will expect to be able to seamlessly access both “web2” and “web3” from a single identity and set of credentials, and we need to enable that experience. Similarly, we need to provide users with a chain-agnostic identity that they can use across all of web3.

Building identity for web3

Building a robust web3 identity layer will require deep focus from strong teams that can build and iterate rapidly. This will often mean building and refining locally before scaling globally (and in a decentralized way). Coinbase and organizations like us need to embrace this long-term vision from the start: open source, open standards, and close collaboration with the broader web3 ecosystem.

Most importantly, we can’t lose sight of the core promise of web3 identity. We need to build in a way that prioritizes privacy, security, and control for the user while being intuitive, forgiving, and trustworthy.

We’ve started this journey with organizations like ENS and Verite to enable a free web3 identity (cb.id) for everyone, and we’ll continue expanding our identity offerings. Watch this space: this is only the beginning of an exciting new chapter for identity and web3 for Coinbase and for the web3 community at large.

What Web3 Identity Needs was originally published in The Coinbase Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Coinbase Exchange fee updates — September 2022

Coinbase Exchange fee updates — September 2022

On Tuesday, September 20, 2022 at approximately 5pm ET, Coinbase Exchange will implement a new fee structure to account for changes in global crypto trading volumes and asset prices, lowering the monthly trading volume required to qualify for the mid and upper tiers of our fee schedule. The new fee schedule will be implemented on Coinbase Exchange, Pro, and Advanced Trade.

In order to respond to client needs, Coinbase periodically updates pricing. All fee updates are shared prior to being implemented.

New Fee Schedule

The calculation for volume tiers will continue to be based on trailing 30 day volume.

Coinbase Exchange fee updates — September 2022 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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