Coinbase Wallet News: Citing low usage, Coinbase Wallet announced it will no longer support assets like Ripple (XRP) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) among others. The team announced December 5, 2022 as the deadline to stop support for a total of cryptocurrencies. Users will be able to access their holdings in these assets through the Coinbase Wallet recovery phrase, it said. With this, these networks will lose support to access Dapps on the networks.
Coinbase is in trouble after nearly 100 customers filed lawsuits against the Western Hemisphere’s largest digital currency trading platform.
Customers Are Angry at Coinbase
These customers accuse Coinbase of turning a blind eye to a scam that ended up costing them over $21 million in digital currency funds. The problem stems from the Coinbase Wallet, which last fall, when downloaded, directed users to fraudulent or fake websites that allowed scammers and hackers to take control of their accounts and transfer their digital assets to Coinbase wallets.
To date, due to the terms and conditions applied by Coinbase, none of the lawsuits in question have resulted in defendants or plaintiffs going to court. Instead, everything is handled through an arbitration process. This ensures that details remain out of the media and that lawsuits take place privately between the company and those affected. Legal disputes are heard by a neutral decision maker who then decides which party deserves a decision in their favor.
In the arbitration process, customers allege that Coinbase was well aware of what was happening with its wallet application and that executives did nothing to address it or minimize the damage. They made several attempts to alert Coinbase bosses to what was going on, but little was done to acknowledge their concerns or the money they had lost. Now these people are taking stronger means to get their money back and get justice for themselves.
To say it was a difficult year for Coinbase would be an understatement. 2022 has been affected by digital currency based issues for everyone, although Coinbase has arguably been affected more than others. What was initially supposed to be a year of massive hiring and taking headcount to new levels turned into a time when not only were all hiring plans put on hold, but the exchange subsequently announced that it would lay off around 18% of its team. to deal with the cryptocurrency windfall the space was experiencing.
The company has had a tough year.
Furthermore, the company has seen its shares crash and burn in recent weeks due to how tied it is to bitcoin, the world’s largest and most popular cryptocurrency by market capitalization. The asset has lost over 70% of its value in the past 12 months, and with bitcoin losing so much in such a short period, the digital exchange is seeing similar results.
When the company first went public in April 2021, shares were priced above $300, even though those same shares have since dropped into the $50 range. Coinbase is also the subject of a new SEC investigation.
Relai, a Swiss bitcoin app, teams up with Checkout.com to enable all its customers to buy mainstream digital currency tokens such as bitcoin and Ethereum.
Relai and Checkout.com… A perfect couple?
The move is slated to improve cryptocurrency adoption and give the space a stronger level of legitimacy. Checkout.com is a global payment provider that works with businesses around the world to ensure their customers can purchase goods and services using multiple payment options, no matter where they are located.
Furthermore, Relai is now the only bitcoin-focused company to offer instant transactions through the personal wallets of any customer using its services. Julian Liniger, CEO and co-founder of Relai, explained in a recent statement:
At a time when it's increasingly important for people to be in control of their money, we're excited to announce our partnership with Checkout.com. This is an exciting time for the entire Relai team, and it means we've finally achieved our ambition to create the world's easiest bitcoin app. People can now buy bitcoins instantly and 24/7 with direct delivery to their self-controlled wallet. This is a world first."Esteban Sadurni, Director of Cryptocurrencies and Digital Assets at Checkout.com, also mentioned:
We are technical at heart and have supported the cryptocurrency industry for several years. That's why we're excited to partner with Relai to support their mission to make Bitcoin easier, simpler, safer and more accessible for everyone who uses our payment technology.Membership is not as focused on allowing customers to purchase items and services with digital currencies. Instead, Relai is taking on a form more akin to a cryptocurrency exchange, as it will allow customers to purchase assets like bitcoin with a variety of payment methods, including Mastercard and Visa cards, along with Apple Pay through Checkout.com.
All transactions will take place in real-time, so customers won’t have to wait days or even minutes to see their assets placed in their connected wallets, and transfers will take place in a matter of seconds. Another decisive factor is that trading is available to users 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and there are no interruptions in service hours.
Cryptocurrencies can guarantee financial independence
Relai has long sought to give its customers full and complete control over their money, which is why it’s turning to cryptocurrency for the long haul. Through the world of traditional finance and standard banking, we are often subject to prying eyes, third parties and intermediaries who have a say in what can and cannot be done with the money.
Ultimately, this removes autonomy and customers are often subject to the decisions of outside observers before they can transact or engage in monetary activity. Through cryptocurrencies, transactions can at least remain semi-private, with all assets owned directly and wholly by the investors who own them.
El Salvador will start buying bitcoin every day, according to Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele. Since adopting the cryptocurrency as legal tender, El Salvador has purchased around 2,381 bitcoins for its treasury.
El Salvador will buy Bitcoin every day
The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, announced this Thursday on Twitter that his country will buy a bitcoin every day starting tomorrow.
Following Bukele’s announcement, Tron founder Justin Sun said he will do the same, tweeting: “We remember @nayibbukele’s initiative to buy bitcoins daily. We will also buy one bitcoin every day starting tomorrow.”
Bukele was undeterred by the recent turmoil surrounding bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX. On Sunday, the Salvadoran president explained in a tweet:
FTX is the opposite of Bitcoin. The Bitcoin protocol was created precisely to prevent Ponzi schemes, bank runs, Enron, Worldcom, Bernie Madoff, Sam Bankman-Fried... bailouts and wealth transfers. Some understand, others still don't. We are still early.El Salvador adopted bitcoin as legal tender along with the US dollar in September last year. Since then, the country has bought around 2,381 bitcoins for its treasury. President Bukele is a strong supporter of cryptocurrencies. He recently attributed El Salvador’s tourism recovery to BTC, surfing, and reduced crime.
However, a survey conducted in October indicated that almost two-thirds of the population have a negative impression of bitcoin, and only a quarter of Salvadorans use the cryptocurrency.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has also warned El Salvador about making Bitcoin legal tender, claiming that the costs of making BTC a national currency outweigh its potential benefits. However, the government of El Salvador has rejected the IMF warning and continues to adopt bitcoin.
Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has been granted permission to file its amicus brief to join Ripple Labs in supporting its ongoing lawsuit with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
On Monday, US District Judge Analisa Torres granted motions for the 12 Ripple supporters to submit their amicus briefs. Among the list of growing supporters are Coinbase and the Blockchain Association. Backers have until November 18 to submit their abstracts, but Coinbase has already confirmed their submission. Earlier this month, she asked the court to consider her request for an amicus brief. An amicus brief is known as a “friend of the court” and is a legal brief that contains advice or information related to a court case from an organization that is not directly involved in the case.
The case between Ripple Labs and the SEC took a big step forward in October, when it was decided in Ripple’s favor and Judge Torres ordered the SEC to turn over Hinman’s disputed documents. These documents contain internal SEC emails and drafts from former corporate CFO William Hinman. The documents contain discovery material from a speech given by Hinman in which he claimed that Bitcoin and Ether are not securities. In his speech, Hinman said:
Based on my understanding of the current state of Ether, the Ethereum network and its decentralized structure, the current offers and sales of Ether are not securities transactions.
The documents are more broadly related to the lawsuit against Ripple Labs, its former CEO Chris Larson and its current CEO Brad Garlinghouse. The SEC filed the lawsuit in 2020 alleging that the three entities, Ripple Labs, Garlinghouse, and Larsen, illegally profited from the sale of Ripple’s native XRP token as unregistered securities.
After a week of great uncertainty for the broader cryptocurrency market, XRP was leading in terms of gains and gained more than 10% following developments.