{"id":19676,"date":"2024-12-18T17:15:22","date_gmt":"2024-12-18T15:15:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/coinbase-cites-justin-sun-concerns-in-wbtc-delisting-decision\/"},"modified":"2024-12-18T17:15:22","modified_gmt":"2024-12-18T15:15:22","slug":"coinbase-cites-justin-sun-concerns-in-wbtc-delisting-decision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/coinbase-cites-justin-sun-concerns-in-wbtc-delisting-decision\/","title":{"rendered":"Coinbase Cites Justin Sun Concerns in WBTC Delisting Decision"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The delisting of WBTC was deemed a necessary measure to protect Coinbase and its users from risks associated with the project&#8217;s ties to Tron founder Justin Sun. This was stated by the exchange&#8217;s lawyers on December 17, as per their <a href=\"https:\/\/assets.ctfassets.net\/c5bd0wqjc7v0\/59OyVZocZqtlU9B2lTEHDr\/fc3854730ce855db79d5111b029122c8\/as-filed_Coinbase_opp.pdf\">announcement<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>According to the platform&#8217;s latest arguments, the issue lies in the token&#8217;s connection to Sun. The lawyers noted that Coinbase had not received sufficient information regarding the entrepreneur&#8217;s role and influence in BiT Global.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>They explained that this posed a potential threat to the exchange&#8217;s clients, leading to the asset&#8217;s delisting due to non-compliance with security standards.<\/p>\n<p>On August 9, Sun-controlled firm BiT Global became a custodian of WBTC reserves alongside BitGo. The partnership raised concerns within the community. Experts pointed out that companies associated with Sun have <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/sec-justifies-legal-pursuit-of-justin-sun-due-to-frequent-us-visits\">faced<\/a> transparency issues. At the time, the Tron founder assured that WBTC would remain unchanged and that he did not have direct access to the funds.<\/p>\n<p>Furthermore, on March 22, 2023, the <span data-descr=\"U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission\" class=\"old_tooltip\">SEC<\/span> accused Sun and his three companies, Tron Foundation, BitTorrent Foundation, and Rainberry (formerly BitTorrent), of unregistered securities offerings.<\/p>\n<p>On November 19, 2024, Coinbase announced the exclusion of WBTC, citing the asset&#8217;s non-compliance with platform standards without providing further details.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>On December 13, BiT Global <a href=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/news\/coinbase-faces-1-billion-lawsuit-wbtc-delisting\">filed<\/a> a lawsuit against the exchange. The platform was accused of unfair delisting to promote its own token, cbBTC. BiT Global claimed this resulted in financial and reputational damage to the project.<\/p>\n<p>Coinbase&#8217;s lawyers argued that BiT Global&#8217;s claims of financial losses were unfounded, as the platform accounted for less than 1% of the global trading volume of WBTC. They also denied any reputational damage.<\/p>\n<p>The community criticized Coinbase&#8217;s stance. Some commentators argued that the exchange did not provide clear reasons for the delisting and was interested in promoting its own asset.\u00a0<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">I&#8217;m no Justin Sun fan, I think he&#8217;s a grifter<\/p>\n<p>But they fail to articulate why wBTC deserves to be delisted. To me, it&#8217;s clear their explanation is bullshit, and the real reason they delisted wBTC was to eliminate competition to cbBTC <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/0wQXeALPLP\">https:\/\/t.co\/0wQXeALPLP<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Pledditor (@Pledditor) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Pledditor\/status\/1869130964540232017?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 17, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m no fan of Justin Sun, I think he&#8217;s a grifter. But [Coinbase] failed to explain why WBTC deserves delisting. To me, it&#8217;s obvious their arguments are nonsense, and the real reason was to eliminate competition with cbBTC,&#8221; said a user on X.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Others believed the exchange provided a reasonable justification.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">For wBTC or any other wrapped BTC, the only &#8216;premium&#8217; they offer is trust in their governance and reputation.<\/p>\n<p>If they see association risk as a threat to that, delisting becomes a logical decision no?<\/p>\n<p>That said, it&#8217;s fair to note this also benefits their competing product.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 boomerf3tt (@boomerf3tt) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/boomerf3tt\/status\/1869138866856452251?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 17, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>&#8220;The only advantage of WBTC or any other wrapped Bitcoin is trust in their management and reputation. If [Coinbase] sees a threat in Sun&#8217;s association with the project, then delisting becomes a logical decision, doesn&#8217;t it? But it&#8217;s fair to note that this also benefits their competing product,&#8221; noted one commentator.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Earlier in December, Coinbase ceased cooperation with law firms employing former SEC officials.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The delisting of WBTC was deemed a necessary measure to protect Coinbase and its users from risks associated with the project&#8217;s ties to Tron founder Justin Sun. This was stated by the exchange&#8217;s lawyers on December 17, as per their announcement. According to the platform&#8217;s latest arguments, the issue lies in the token&#8217;s connection to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19675,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"","news_style_id":"","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[138,1162,1302,1286,1655],"class_list":["post-19676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-coinbase","tag-court-cases","tag-justin-sun","tag-listing","tag-wrapped-bitcoin"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"24","promo_type":"","layout_type":"","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19676\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}