The cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has announced the cessation of trading in Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) on December 19.
We regularly monitor the assets on our exchange to ensure they meet our listing standards. Based on our most recent review, Coinbase will suspend trading for wBTC (wBTC) on December 19, 2024, on or around 12pm ET.
— Coinbase Assets ?️ (@CoinbaseAssets) November 19, 2024
According to the announcement, the asset does not meet the trading platform’s listing standards, though the specifics remain undisclosed.
Market trading of WBTC is already closed, with only limit orders remaining available. The exchange’s team emphasized that users will be able to withdraw their tokens even after the complete delisting.
We regret and are surprised by Coinbase’s decision to delist WBTC. As the core team behind Wrapped BTC, we have always been committed to providing the community with the most compliant, transparent, and decentralized BTC tokenization product.
Over the years, WBTC has established…
— WBTC (@WrappedBTC) November 19, 2024
In response, the Wrapped BTC team noted that the project has always cooperated with platforms to fully comply with regulatory standards and urged the exchange to reconsider its decision:
“We regret and are surprised by Coinbase’s decision to delist WBTC. […] We urge Coinbase to reconsider this decision and continue supporting WBTC trading.”
One reason for the move away from WBTC could be the transition of the project’s Bitcoin reserve multisig wallet to partial control by Justin Sun’s company BitGlobal. This has already prompted a proposal to remove WBTC from the list of assets available for collateral in the Sky ecosystem (formerly MakerDAO).
On September 12, Coinbase launched Coinbase Wrapped BTC (cbBTC) — its own version of wrapped Bitcoin in the form of an ERC-20 token. This has raised suspicions within the community of unfair treatment towards WBTC and other wrapped assets.
In October, Coinbase announced the cessation of access to trading certain stablecoins for EU residents.