If Coinbase’s losses from the crypto market downtrend were enough, it is now facing another major loss due to Apple’s recent action on its wallet.
According to the latest reports, the Coinbase exchange wallet has been blocked by Apple. The wallet is no longer visible on Apple’s app store.
Coinbase, a major cryptocurrency exchange is now facing a major problem from Apple’s end after the tech giant updated its guidelines for the app store review.
Apple Updated its App Review Policy
It was in November when the App Store Review Guidelines were updated by Apple.
This meant that the platform had introduced a new process that would govern the placement and distribution of the applications from its platform.
For the first time, Apple has added the term to their App Store Review Guidelines where they have set up a rule about the sales and purchases of NFTs.
This shows that Apple is now flexing its muscles against platforms that are using Apple’s app store for distributing their products that offer in-app purchases.
Claim by Apple
In the updated guidelines, Apple has made it clear that the transaction fees being deducted by Coinbase for the transferring of the non-fungible tokens must go through Apple.
This is because the users use the Apple system and store it for the purpose of downloading and using the Coinbase wallets.
Then these wallets are used for multiple purposes and NFT transaction fees are one of the aspects. Therefore, these fees and transactions must go through the system offered by Apple.
Apple Charges 30% per Transaction
Every payment made on the applications downloaded from the app store must pay 30% of the value to Apple.
The iPhone maker now wants to apply the same rule to the Coinbase wallet that is used for making NFT transactions. The transaction fees in the crypto world, especially on the ETH network are referred to as gas fees.
The company now wants to be paid 30% of every transaction fee being deduced by Coinbase to the users.
Now, whenever a user makes a purchase of an NFT or transfers it to other users and they are deducted a gas fee, 30% of that will go to Apple.
An Impossible thing for Coinbase
This is something that is completely impossible for Coinbase at the moment. This is because Coinbase collects transaction fees in the form of cryptocurrencies.
Therefore, if it is going to pay Apple for every transaction, it needs to do it using cryptocurrencies. However, Apple currently does not have a system that supports cryptocurrency transactions or payments.
This is the reason why Coinbase will not be able to directly set up a process that sends a portion of the transaction fee over to Apple.
At present, the tech giant does not have the technology to support cryptocurrency transactions.
As per Coinbase, they will not be able to do anything about the fee transfers from their end to Apple even if they want to. Once Apple has a system in place that accepts cryptocurrencies, it will be able to do it.
Apple Faces a Backlash
The pressure has been on Apple ever since the report came out about the company’s action on Coinbase’s wallet.
The users have taken to Twitter and other social media platforms to share their concerns and disappointment over Apple.
A very popular cryptocurrency influencer, Cobie, shared his disappointment over Apple’s latest decision.
His comments were sarcastic against Apple suggesting that the tech giant should know what stupidity they have attempted.
Impact on Coinbase
Coinbase is among the handful of cryptocurrencies that made their public debut. Unfortunately, it was not a good time for the exchange because its shares have continued plummeting since then.
With Apple blocking its wallet from its app store, it is going to cause more problems for the exchange.
It will not only face a loss in its revenues but the cryptocurrencies and NFTs will also be impacted by this action.
