When you trade crypto, how do you trade? Are you a Coinbase user, paying your commission fees whenever you transact? Are you a Robinhood user, bypassing all fees? Are you a crypto degen, yield farming and swapping across DEXes and this isn’t relevant to you?
Either way, let’s dive in — Coinbase is going to be testing a new subscription service that would remove commission fees on trades.
Why does this matter? Because Coinbase (one of the biggest crypto exchanges out there) makes the majority of its revenue from trades in Bitcoin and the other cryptos it lists — which means that if interest in Bitcoin is down, Coinbase revenue is down.
A subscription model that eliminates commission fees for trading in exchange for perks like phone support and potentially up to $1 million (!!) in backing if your funds are stolen could give Coinbase a more stable revenue stream.
(Also, remember that story last month of a couple losing $700K due to a phishing scam, and Coinbase customer support sending them $500 as recompense? I bet those people would love to take advantage of premium phone support, if they are even still Coinbase users at this point….)
Back to the removal of commission fees, it’s an interesting way to stay in the market — while no one is saying that Coinbase is losing any relevance or mindshare, Robinhood (with its commission-free trading) has been making a splash as crypto becomes over half of its transaction revenue.
Coinbase will need to carefully pilot this program, most likely to users who are not huge traders (to not immediately lose out on lots of commission fees without knowing if the subscription plan is going to аctually be a thing).
But if Bitcoin ever goes back down from its current highs (please, no), then this plan of Coinbase’s could be a pretty smart cookie move — the bull market doesn’t always last forever.
