Coinbase to delist Wrapped Bitcoin

Coinbase will be suspending trading of Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) in December, citing undisclosed failures to meet the cryptocurrency exchange’s standards for listing tokens.

“We regularly monitor the assets on our exchange to ensure they meet our listing standards. Based on our most recent review, Coinbase will suspend trading for wBTC (wBTC) on Dec. 19, 2024, on or around 12 pm ET,” Coinbase said in a Nov. 19 post on X.

Coinbase has already discontinued market trading of WBTC and is only facilitating trades in in the form of limit orders.

Bitcoin (BTC) wrappers are tokens representing BTC on other blockchain networks.

“Trading will be suspended on Coinbase.com (Simple and Advanced Trade), Coinbase Exchange and Coinbase Prime,” Coinbase said.

“Your wBTC funds will remain accessible to you, and you will continue to have the ability to withdraw your funds at any time.

On Aug. 9, BitGo — the cryptocurrency custodian holding WBTC’s Bitcoin backing — agreed to grant Hong Kong-based crypto exchange BiT Global partial control of the multisignature wallet that holds the custodied Bitcoin.

“This announcement has proven controversial due to the involvement of Justin Sun, with many in the ecosystem expressing concern over his ‘affiliated projects show worrying signs of possible misappropriation’ of collateral,” Threshold, a rival Bitcoin wrapper, said in August. 

According to DefiLlama, WBTC is still the most popular Bitcoin wrapper, with upward of $13 billion in total value locked (TVL). 

“We regret and are surprised by Coinbase’s decision to delist WBTC,” Wrapped BTC told Cointelegraph on Nov. 19.

“[W]e have always been committed to providing the community with the most compliant, transparent, and decentralized BTC tokenization product,” it added.

“We urge Coinbase to reconsider this decision and continue supporting WBTC trading.”

Related: Stop panicking about Wrapped Bitcoin — There are other coins

Launched on Sept. 12, Coinbase’s WBTC competitor, Coinbase Wrapped BTC (cbBTC), has emerged as one of the most popular BTC wrappers, with some $1.4 billion in TVL, according to CoinMarketCap. 

In September, Coinbase was criticized for allegedly lagging rival Bitcoin wrappers in transparency. It was also the target of unfounded rumors alleging Coinbase was issuing unbacked Bitcoin IOUs to BlackRock, a crypto exchange-traded fund (ETF) sponsor. 

Coinbase plans to add verifiable proof of reserves to cbBTC, a spokesperson for Coinbase confirmed to Cointelegraph on Sept. 30.

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