San Francisco based crypto exchange, Coinbase, has announced that it will soon begin allowing a subset of its users to transfer and receive Ethereum, Dai, and Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) using the Ethereum scaling solution Arbitrum.
For Ethereum’s scalability issues, the layer-2 solution Arbitrum seeks to provide faster and cheaper transactions. Over the course of several months, Coinbase has been trying to connect with the Arbitrum network, expanding its already extensive list of supported cryptocurrencies and gaining a reputation for its user-friendliness in the process.
By integrating with Arbitrum, Coinbase customers will be able to send and receive Ethereum-based assets with nearly immediate confirmation times and lower fees than the main Ethereum network. As a bonus, Coinbase now allows customers to store and transfer Dai, a stablecoin whose value is tethered to the US dollar.
The Coinbase article announcing the integration showed that initially, only a subset of users would have access to the Arbitrum network, but that this will be expanded to all users in the future. Access to the service requires users to have Ether in their Coinbase wallets.
More than 68 million people worldwide have used Coinbase, making it among one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world. The company’s backing for Arbitrum marks a major step forward for Ethereum’s layer-2 ecosystem, as it indicates growing consumer and institutional interest in scaling solutions.
Coinbase’s decision comes as Ethereum users seek out alternative networks and layer-2 solutions due to high gas fees and lengthy transaction times. By adopting Arbitrum, Coinbase is setting itself up to be a frontrunner in the evolution toward an Ethereum ecosystem that is both more scalable and more user-friendly.
On the other hand, the exchange included a significant warning on its website, stating that “certain big deposits and deposits made during periods of heavy bridging activity may be subject to delays.” Maker DAO is also in support of this motion as they also reiterated the news on their Twitter page.
Coinbase’s adoption of Arbitrum is a major milestone in the effort to make Ethereum usable by the general public, and it’s a great step for the cryptocurrency industry as a whole.
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