Since being founded in 2012, Coinbase has been a central cryptocurrency exchange. The company is highly respected and processes billions of dollars every year.
Coinbase Pro, which was launched in 2018, was intended to be the version of Coinbase designed to assist high-performing traders and firms that needed to be able to trade large, uncapped volumes of currency all over the world. Through its platform, Coinbase successfully offered this service for more than 250 different types of cryptocurrencies. However, Coinbase has now decided to shut down Coinbase Pro.
The reasoning behind the decision
The company has decided that its customers would be better served under one platform versus offering the upgraded option.
Users will now be able to access the perks of Coinbase Pro via the ‘Advanced Trade’ section of the website. According to the press announcement of this change, Coinbase claims that clients will still be able to trade at high volumes.
One of the core reasons behind this shutdown is the former process of transferring funds between accounts. The company stated: “In the past, advanced traders have used Coinbase Pro for more in-depth trades and analysis. But to use other Coinbase features, you had to transfer funds to your primary Coinbase account.”
To the company, this seemed an overcomplication that combining the services would fix. Coinbase claims that normal users will still be able to use the website as usual. Those who pay for access to the Advanced Trade page will be able to utilize these normal features, while also seeing in-depth trade analysis, trend tracking and market cap updates in real time.
How are people reacting?
Some people were not pleased with this decision. The company has tried to mitigate customer dissatisfaction by phasing out Coinbase Pro slowly, allowing customers to migrate slowly to the new platform.
Some were worried that their funds housed in Coinbase Pro would be threatened. However, in a statement, Coinbase said: “For customers holding funds on Coinbase Pro, there is no action to take – funds will remain safe on Coinbase. Meanwhile, customers are welcome to begin using Advanced Trade on the Coinbase mobile app and Coinbase.com.”
Others found this move to be a betrayal of Coinbase’s original mission of making crypto trading accessible to all people in the pursuit of attracting big names to the platform. Consumers are worried that amateur traders will be neglected moving forward.
Conclusion
In order to dominate the currency landscape, companies are starting to get creative with their business models. Some are seeking out as many new customers as possible, by offering digital wallets and dApp additions. Others, such as Coinbase, have decided to focus their immediate attention on a smaller group of individuals – those who trade large amounts on the blockchain. It will be interesting to see which model proves supreme in the world of cryptocurrency.
