The sun never sets on Coinbase’s empire, and the company has finally fixed banking for its UK customers.
Coinbase Welcomes Back GBP
Coinbase confirmed in a blog post:
“We’re delighted to announce that we’ve successfully transitioned our payment systems for UK customers, and domestic GBP bank transfers are now fully reinstated.”
Not everyone was impressed.
There are lot of options to buy crypto here in UK which have better services than CB and bank friendly with no transaction fees.. CB is being deleted from my apps and list as it truly sucks and useless..
— Rolly Apao (@RollyApao1) September 28, 2018
Coinbase revoked banking access for UK customers earlier in the year due to a change in banking relationships, underscoring yet again the delicate nature of cryptocurrency.
UK users now also have access to five new tokens, including XRP, which is developed and issued by Ripple Labs.
XRP is an interesting choice since a panel held in part by Coinbase recently concluded that XRP is likely a security.
The definition is important because, ultimately, it would affect the ways that Ripple Labs might be held liable for the use of XRP as well as the kinds of entities that can facilitate trading.
Fees Drive Customers Nuts
Lower-volume Coinbase Pro customers will be paying higher fees moving forward, a move which is rankling some users, according to Twitter research.
Fees, fees and more fees. @coinbase pro doubling and tripling fees at the lower tiers. Time to research other platforms pic.twitter.com/6gmZ0DNErk
— ⚡Crypto Kimbo⚡ (@cryptokimbo) October 3, 2019
Coinbase wants to reward its most active users by lowering their fees, however, it intends to offset the discounts by charging less active users more per trade.
The strategy is no different than bulk discounts in any other industry, in some ways. However, Coinbase may be illustrating that there is a third kind of trader: the semi-pro.
A semi-pro trader might not do anything else to earn money, but his strategy might keep him from investing during various market conditions.
Fee Hikes Affect Small Fish
Coinbase’s new fee structure targets such a user.
The fees will kick in on Monday, October 7th, and vary widely depending on the activity of the user. Users in the “taker” category with less than $10,000 volume will pay 0.5%, for example, while firms doing more than $1 billion will pay just 0.04%.
It isn’t hard to see that the fees on the higher-volume users still earn the company more money, but nevertheless, lower-volume traders have alternatives that raising fees might make more attractive.
0. My response to @krugermacro's mention of @Coinbase raising trading fees.
(Thread)
— Joe McCann (@joemccann) October 3, 2019
As Joe McCann speculates in the thread above, Coinbase could, in fact, be looking to bolster revenues during a down market.
