By
Godfrey Benjamin
April 23rd, 2024
The crypto exchange and NFT marketplace were beaten for the top spots by payments company Stripe in the first place.
Coinbase and OpenSea have made this year’s Y Combinator breakthrough companies’ top 5 list. According to the technology startup accelerator, the “Breakthrough Companies” list comprises “high-growth companies that have received significant additional investment or more in funding from YC”.
On the list of 40 companies in total, Coinbase ranked fourth while OpenSea was fifth. The crypto exchange and NFT marketplace were beaten for the top spots by payments company Stripe in the first place with delivery services InstaCart and DoorDash taking the second and third spots respectively.
Coinbase: cbETH and a New Voter Registration Tool
Coinbase has been in the news recently following its announcement of the launch of a new asset known as Coinbase Wrapped Staked ETH (cbETH) in preparation for the highly anticipated Ethereum Merge. cbETH will be listed on the Ethereum blockchain as an ERC-20 token.
According to the Coinbase Assets Twitter account, “Coinbase Wrapped Staked ETH (cbETH) is a utility token that represents ETH2, which is ETH staked through Coinbase. cbETH can be sold or sent off-platform, while ETH2 will remain locked-up until a future protocol upgrade […] Note that the price of cbETH is NOT meant to track the price of ETH 1:1. cbETH represents staked ETH plus all of its accrued staking interest, starting from when cbETH’s conversion rate and balance were initialized (June 16, 2022, 19:34 UTC).”
The compound token’s whitepaper reveals that cbETH’s use cases are expected to be in trade, transfer and DeFi applications.
Coinbase has also announced the launch of a voter registration tool alongside a crypto policy education initiative. The company, known for its “apolitical” stance, notes that this year’s elections could directly impact crypto. Chief Policy Officer Faryar Shirzad commented:
“The leaders we elect in November will be making key decisions about how crypto, blockchain, and Web3 are regulated. We’ve heard loud and clear from our customers that they want to get involved in these debates and are looking for trusted resources, tools, and support to help them be heard.”
OpenSea in a Stormy NFT Market
The NFT marketplace earlier this month announced changes to its stolen NFT policy. According to the new policy, if there is no police report concerning stolen items within 7 days, OpenSea will re-enable trading for said items.
The platform has, however, also made it clear that they are focused on finding long-term solutions to the problem of NFT theft. They will be working with partners in the industry such as MetaMask wallet to improve user awareness while preventing disincentivizing theft.
Initiatives like this could come to the aid of the otherwise embattled NFT industry whose trading volume dropped by 41% in the second quarter of 2022.