30s Summary

Coinbase is phasing out Wrapped Bitcoin (wBTC) trading by December 19th due to it not meeting listing standards. This follows Coinbase’s launch of its own wBTC version, cbBTC. This decision comes amid heightened attention to wBTC following BitGo’s partnership with partly Justin Sun-owned BiT Global. BitGo’s CEO, Mike Belshe, insisted Sun has limited control over BiT Global, and criticizes Coinbase’s cbBTC for excessive centralization, arguing it could harm the concept of Decentralized Finance (DeFi).

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Coinbase has started to phase out Wrapped Bitcoin (wBTC) and will stop trading it on December 19th. The decision is due to it not meeting “listing standards.” This action took place just after Coinbase launched its own version of wBTC, called cbBTC.

wBTC is a token representing Bitcoin on Ethereum and other blockchains. It’s offered by BitGo, and while other similar products exist, the concept remains the same: held crypto on one end, and a representation of the token on a different blockchain on the other end.

There’s been a lot of attention around wBTC recently following BitGo’s announcement of a joint venture with BiT Global, a custodian that Justin Sun partly owns. Despite fears about Sun’s involvement, BitGo’s CEO Mike Belshe assured that Sun had little operational control over BiT Global. Belshe explained that due to the legal structure of the custodian, no person can own more than 20%, and the keys are split among multiple parties.

Belshe sees the partnership as offering superior storage for keys compared to anything Coinbase could provide. He also criticized Coinbase’s cbBTC for being overly centralized, something he views as contradictory to the principles of decentralized finance (DeFi). Belshe suggested that any reliance on centralized entities such as Coinbase would be detrimental to the concept of DeFi.