Coinbase Commerce Removes Bitcoin Payments

On February 18th, Coinbase announced the discontinuation of support for Bitcoin and similar UTXO-based cryptocurrencies on its Coinbase Commerce merchant payment platform. This decision was made by Product Director Lauren Dowling amid challenges in integrating Bitcoin into recent platform updates.

1/ Hey folks, I’m the product lead for Coinbase Commerce and want to share some thoughts on how the product is evolving, why we’ve made these changes, and clarify what it means for our asset support strategy moving forward. 👇

— Lauren Dowling (@Lauren_Dowling_) February 17, 2024

Coinbase Commerce is a crypto payment platform for merchants. Recently, Coinbase has made several significant updates to the platform, from adding a range of digital assets like ERC-20 tokens to enabling automatic conversion of payments into the USDC stablecoin.

However, due to inherent limitations of the Bitcoin blockchain, particularly its inability to integrate smart contracts and stablecoins, Coinbase Commerce considered removing the world’s largest cryptocurrency.

Nevertheless, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong noted that users can still use Bitcoin if they have a Coinbase exchange account. Furthermore, Armstrong mentioned the platform’s efforts to integrate the Lightning Network, a layer-2 payment protocol of the Bitcoin network optimized for speed and transaction fees.

Not seeing #bitcoin as an option, just @Coinbase. Weird because my @CommerceCB store works fine and shows BTC on-chain. May need to flip the Bitcoin toggle on in settings, @jasonfried?

Would love to see Coinbase Commerce add Lightning too CC: @ViktorBunin @SavithaSameer⚡️ pic.twitter.com/PilALM2XOQ

— Michael Rihani⚡️ (@MichaelRihani) February 15, 2024

User responses to this announcement

However, this decision has sparked controversy within the cryptocurrency community. Some expressed concerns, suggesting that Coinbase is going against the widespread adoption trend of Bitcoin as well as limiting the development potential of Coinbase Commerce, restricting customers’ choices and flexibility in using cryptocurrencies for online transactions.

An anonymous user expressed frustration on X:

Is there any assumption that all customers are in the US and able to open a Coinbase account or all want to have a Coinbase account? This is like ordering everyone to be Bank of America customers so that stores only need to use this bank’s services to accept payments.

Coinbase is often acting as if they are fighting the good fight, but don't be fooled, they aren't.

Example, 'Coinbase Commerce' no longer supports payments from self-custody wallets or third party exchanges:

'You can still accept Bitcoin, […] payments as long as your… pic.twitter.com/vgyTO7MLLq

— CR1337 (@cryptonator1337) February 18, 2024

In more positive developments, Coinbase recently reported an impressive quarter of business growth, with revenue and profits exceeding estimates.