Coinbase Introduces Fees for USDC to USD Exchange
Date: 2025-08-08 Author: Henry Casey Categories: BUSINESS
The cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has decided to introduce a fee for converting the stablecoin USDC into US dollars. This was announced by Will McComb, the company's senior director overseeing the stablecoin direction. He described the innovation as an experiment, the main goal of which is to maintain liquidity and retain users within the platform.
This step was taken against the backdrop of the deterioration of the exchange's financial performance: in the second quarter of 2025, trading volume fell by almost 40%, and revenue amounted to $1.5 billion. It is assumed that the new fee will help offset the costs of supporting USDC transactions.
Bankless expert Ryan Sean Adams expressed concern about this decision. According to him, Coinbase's actions are increasingly reminiscent of the behavior of traditional banks, which contradicts the decentralized nature of cryptocurrencies. He noted that the increased costs will especially affect large investors and institutional traders, who may have to look for alternative ways to conduct transactions - for example, using other platforms or switching to the competing stablecoin Tether (USDT). The latter, by the way, showed a 20% increase in market capitalization this year, while USDC's was 47%.
Adams also fears that such a precedent could provoke similar steps from other centralized exchanges, thereby reducing the attractiveness of USDC and increasing its dependence on centralized control.
It is worth noting that Coinbase has previously faced criticism from users. Last year, some customers complained about difficulties in withdrawing funds and moving digital assets. Customer support representatives explained this by security measures taken to protect accounts from possible hacking.
The company assured that it will carefully study the feedback from customers regarding the introduction of the fee. However, the fact remains that in the face of falling revenues and fierce competition, even leading exchanges are forced to resort to measures that are causing controversy in the crypto community.
