- Coinbase has laid out how it plans to deal with the Ethereum merge next month
- Deposits and withdrawals will be temporarily disabled while the merge happens
- Users are being advised to simply do nothing, especially not to send off ETH to be ‘swapped’ for a new coin
Coinbase has laid out its plans for the Ethereum merge next month and sounded the warning claxon about the inevitable scams that will attempt to take advantage of any confusion over the merge. Coinbase says that it will pause ETH deposits and withdrawals around the time of the merge and will keep users’ staked ETH until the merge is officially finalised in early 2023. It also advised against interacting with anyone promoting an ETH2 token as a separate entity, as this will be a scamming attempt.
Coinbase to Switch ETH to ETH2
The Ethereum merge is the talking point of the crypto space (mainly because there’s nothing else to talk about at the moment), and will continue to be until it actually takes place in around a months’ time. Exchanges are naturally getting their ducks in a row in advance, with Coinbase issuing guidance over how it plans to deal with it yesterday.
In a blog post, Coinbase explained how, essentially, users need do nothing as any ETH they hold will be automatically transferred over to the new blockchain under the ticker ETH2. It warned however that ETH2 is not a separate coin, merely a new ticker for the same coin, so that anyone suggesting holders need to send their ETH to be swapped for ETH2 is doing so in order to try and steal their tokens.
ETH Rewards Held Until 2023
ETH deposits and withdrawals will be halted before and after the merge next month, something we would expect all exchanges to do, and while staked ETH2 holdings will generate an income, the coins generated won’t be available to users until the merge is completely finalised, which isn’t expected to be until early 2023.
We can expect other exchanges to outlay similar plans in the next few weeks, with the ethos basically being ‘don’t do anything’.
