Coinbase Launches Decentralized Chat Feature & Pauses Staking in Certain States

While all eyes were on Ripple last week (and for good reason), there was plenty of other news surrounding Coinbase that got lost underneath the headlines.

Coinbase Pauses Staking In Four States

Coinbase has announced that users in California, New Jersey, South Carolina and Wisconsin are no longer allowed to stake new digital tokens on its exchange (anything staked prior to the announcement would remain though).

The move follows the SECs lawsuit from last month, alleging that the Coinbase’s Earn staking program is an unregistered security.

The removal mainly comes as a result of the “show-cause order” that was issued by 10 states warning Coinbase that its staking product does not comply with securities rules.

While this is negative news for these four states, it is positive news for the other six where Coinbase worked with policymakers to protect the staking product.

Coinbase continues to stand by their staking product especially as it accounts now for more than 10% of the company’s revenue.

Coinbase Releases Decentralized Messaging Feature

What do you get if you combine encrypted messaging such as from the likes of Telegram and Signal, with payment apps such as from Venmo or Cash App?

Answer: Coinbase’s new decentralized messaging feature.

This week, Coinbase launched messaging on their Coinbase Wallet feature, allowing anyone to send secure messages to and from wallet addresses on the platform. The feature, which was established in partnership with web3 communications firm XMTP, is a brand new way for people to engage with crypto beyond trading.

What’s more, the feature also allows users to send USDC to other users without incurring any gas fees.

“So what?” You might be saying…

Well, this development adds to a string of recent releases from Coinbase allowing users to interact with crypto in novel ways.

Furthermore, by offering encrypted messaging and on-chain identity verification, it can help alleviate some of the scams that so many potential users are worried about in crypto.