Coinbase Crypto Payment Portal Drops Bitcoin Support 

• Coinbase’s payment portal discontinues support for Bitcoin.
• The exchange’s head of product shared that this change aims to improve the payment portal.
• Brian Armstrong has hinted that support for Bitcoin could return soon.

Coinbase commerce, the crypto exchange’s take on ‘a new standard for on-chain payments,’ takes a surprising turn on Sunday, February 18, as it drops Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrencies, from its supported list of payments for merchants. 

Coinbase Commerce Moves Forward Without Bitcoin

Coinbase’s Head of Product, Lauren Dowling, broke the news to the exchange’s 73 million users that it has made the ‘difficult decision’ to remove native Bitcoin, Litecoin, and other UTXO support from its payment platform. 

Dowling clarified that Coinbase Commerce was designed to streamline crypto payments. By leveraging smart contracts and other EVM tools, the payment protocol aimed to enable on-chain commerce without the operational and financial burdens of the old system.

To achieve this, the payment protocol ensured that payment details were recorded on-chain, supported numerous native and ERC-20 tokens, and automatically converted payments to USDC on-chain at a guaranteed rate to merchants.

However, Bitcoin’s incompatibility, such as the lack of smart contracts and stablecoins on the network, made it challenging for it to fit with its EVM-based payment protocol, Dowling explained. 

What Does This Mean For Coinbase Commerce Users? 

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong detailed that users paying with Coinbase Commerce could still transact with Bitcoin ‘off-chain’ if they had an account with the exchange. He also unveiled plans to integrate Solana and Bitcoin Lightning Network soon. 

However, despite hints of restoring support, Coinbase’s decision to discontinue Bitcoin payments stipulated that both parties must have an exchange account, sparking community criticism. 

Some users weren’t happy about being forced to have an exchange account to pay with Bitcoin, citing the exchange didn’t support every jurisdiction. 

On the Flipside

• Coinbase is the primary custodian for 90% of the Bitcoin ETF issuers, securing over $30 billion in assets. 
• Coinbase cut annual costs by 45% in 2023 while generating a robust income of $3.1 billion.
• After grappling with Bitcoin’s network issues, Binance swiftly integrated Lightning Network to alleviate the problems. 

Why This Matters

Given regulators’ increasing acceptance of Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency has become a common payment choice for merchants and shoppers. Coinbase’s decision to remove support for the leading cryptocurrency could disrupt day-to-day operations for numerous crypto-accepting businesses and shoppers who relied on the payment protocol.

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