By
Godfrey Benjamin
April 25th, 2024
Despite the controversy surrounding the Tether coin, Coinbase Pro is still planning to go ahead with the listing.
The Crypto ecosystem Coinbase recently announced on April 23rd, 2021, that it would allow the trading of Bitfinex’s Tether (USDT) on their Pro platform. And yet the long-awaited development is nowhere to be found. In an announcement today, April 28th, Coinbase stated that they would be delaying the launch of trading of the popular stablecoin USDT Tether until next month.
Coinbase made the announcement, citing a continuing problem with their specialized platform’s API or Application Programming Interface. This will make the second delay Tether has faced after an earlier postponement on the 27th, despite reassurances that trading Tether will soon be possible on Coinbase.
Not all transactions have ceased however, users can still transfer funds on the platform. And Coinbase continues to assure investors that the problem is being resolved. The crypto giant went on to add that “We are continuing to deploy services on the backend to scale and bolster the exchange and want to take this time to make the exchange more robust”.
Earlier in the month, Coinbase went public in a direct listing on the Nasdaq exchange through a ticker called $COIN. The direct listing broadened the company options considerably, which is why it came as a bit of a shock to the crypto space when Coinbase Pro decided to list USDT on its platform.
Tether’s listing on Coinbase is not unreasonable, the stablecoin is one of the most traded coins on the market. Tether’s undeniable success on the market is supported by facts, a market cap of over $50 billion, growing over 2 million percent in 5 years, and a reported daily volume of about $100 billion each day.
Unfortunately, Tether’s success has an undeniable dark side, time and time again the company has been accused of several financial misdeeds. Constant controversy has surrounded the Tether coin since its inception, the original claim that each Tether coin is solidly backed by a US dollar was challenged and overthrown in a recent court case against the NYDFS.
Other critics of the coin continue to challenge the parent company, Bitfinex’s claim that the stablecoin is no longer backed by sufficient currency reserves. A claim the Tether team continues to struggle against. Tether’s executive team members have all come forward to claim unfair scrutiny and regulation against their coin due to its immense short-term success.
Despite the controversy surrounding the Tether (USDT) coin, Coinbase Pro intends to go ahead with the listing. But multiple roadblocks seem to stand in the way of that. The company did mention in their statement that they hoped to have the API issue fixed and trading with Tether up and running by 6pm on May 3rd.