Coinbase seems poised to enter the wrapped Bitcoin market following the corporate's latest disclosures.
On August 13, Coinbase's official X (previously Twitter) account introduced the upcoming product with a put up titled “cbBTC,” adopted by “Coming Quickly.” Shan Agarwal, head of company and enterprise growth at Coinbase Ventures, commented, “It's been powerful protecting this a secret.”
Whereas particulars concerning the product are scarce, Jesse Pollack, lead developer of Coinbase’s Base community, has hinted at plans to construct a large-scale Bitcoin financial system on the Ethereum Layer 2 community.
He stated:
“To place it bluntly, I like Bitcoin and am extremely grateful for the position it has performed within the adoption of cryptocurrency. We intend to construct a large-scale Bitcoin financial system on Base.”
Dan Elitzer, co-founder of enterprise capital agency Nascent, recommended that cbBTC is of strategic significance to the crypto firm, as he speculated that the brand new product may surpass BitGo's present provide of wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) inside six months of launch.
In line with him:
“cbBTC has been important and really strategic for Coinbase, and albeit I'm stunned they didn't launch it years in the past.”
This sentiment was echoed by nameless crypto investor DCinvestor, who believes Coinbase can leverage cbBTC to transform Bitcoin holders into Base and Ethereum customers.
WBTC in bother
Coinbase's announcement about cbBTC comes amid latest controversy surrounding Tron founder Justin Solar's involvement with BitGo's WBTC.
On August 9, BitGo revealed plans to switch management of WBTC to a brand new three way partnership involving itself, Hong Kong-based funding supervisor BiT International, and Solar. The choice sparked a significant backlash inside the crypto neighborhood, with considerations primarily centered on Solar's involvement.
Regardless of these considerations, BitGo CEO Mike Belshe and Solar preserve that the crypto entrepreneurs’ roles within the new enterprise had been purely strategic.
Mr Solar stated:
“The minting course of is absolutely managed by our custodians Bitglobal and Bitgo, following the identical procedures as earlier than. Merely put, Bitglobal and Bitgo don’t signal unaudited transactions. Keys are protected utilizing the identical Bitgo chilly pockets know-how and offline keys, backed up in a number of international locations and areas.”
Nonetheless, Elitzer criticized the transfer, suggesting that no skilled DeFi consumer or threat supervisor would need to preserve publicity to WBTC below Solar’s affect.
He additionally famous that this administration shift may result in important disruption, resulting in completely different protocols and platforms supporting different bridged BTC options.
