Hello Advanced Trade, Goodbye Coinbase Pro

Congratulations!

We've frozen your account!

I swear the way Coinbase frames their messages is so enraging the vast majority of the time. I remember when they increased trading fees by quite a bit and acted like it was a favor to the user. So stupid. So I click on the stupid "Go To Advanced Trading" button and what do I get?

https://www.coinbase.com/advanced-trade

Does it actually bring me to advanced trading?
No, of course not.

No instead I get bombarded with reasons for why Advanced Trading is so super dooper awesomesauce!

What... The... Fuck.

Trading API coming mid 2022? Something super shady is going on here. It's like watching a magician trying to get your attention with one hand while the other one is performing the trick. After it's all over, you're not really sure what just happened exactly.

Why is Coinbase spending so much effort trying to convince me that Advanced Trading is awesome when I don't even have a choice between the two versions? Is it really just so less people complain about it? This is odd, to say the least. Coinbase Pro is gone. Why dwell on it?

So weird...

What is up with crypto stuff happening on my birthday?
November is always the craziest month of the year for sure.

Nov 2020 bull run started.
Nov 2021 bull run peaked.
Nov 2022 is a possible market bottom.
Nov 2023 will be pretty amazing.

Back to the actual topic.

The question I really have to ask is... how can it have "the same liquidity" if there is no trading API? No trading API means a lot of the bots are going to be inactive for over six months... which means there will be less liquidity. Why would they rush this 'upgrade' through without even providing an API for it? It makes very little business sense.

I get the feeling that I'm not supposed to question why Coinbase Pro is disappearing. Just bombarded with why Advanced Trading is better for some reason. Very weird vibes considering there are plenty of reasons to give for why Coinbase Pro has got to go.

Anyone that's used Coinbase Pro knows that it often has 'partially degraded service'. This almost seems to be the standard, and every single time Bitcoin dumps hard they freeze trading and people are pissed. Obviously if that stops happening traders will be trilled. No promises.

It's also very unclear how Coinbase Pro was operating. At first, it was called GDAX, and it seemed like it was this other 3rd party company that was contracting with Coinbase. Then they rebranded to Coinbase Pro presumably because people were like "wtf is GDAX?". It's quite possible that there are a lot of inefficiencies between Coinbase and Coinbase Pro that they were looking to fix... so why not just say that?

Oh, I'm sorry, did you need more proof?

https://www.coinbase.com/blog/bringing-advanced-trading-tools-to-coinbase

Again... another infographic comparing Coinbase Pro to Advanced Trading... again... why is so much effort being put into this. So weird. And the fact that they admit it has no trading API makes it grossly obvious that there is something they are not telling us. "Yeah we are totally rushing this product to market as fast as possible but we're not going to tell you why..." Yeah, seems legit. Cool story.

And we also can't ignore that we are in the middle of a rampaging bear market and drastic rushed changes like this are highly suspect. Is there something about Coinbase Pro that is very inefficient and somehow expensive and Coinbase can't afford it anymore? I'm not even sure how that logic makes sense but it's a question we have to ask given the context of the situation we find ourselves in.

For example, if Coinbase Pro was still operating under the old GDAX team and contracts, it would make sense to finally cut those ties and rush their own product to market within the bear. Now they can basically sever that connection and fire everyone from the GDAX wing. If that's what's happening... just say so. Layoffs are common during the bear market. It's basic capitalism. But now within the void of explanation people like me will pop up and wonder if there is even something more sinister going on here.

So I click the button.

And what do I get?

Yeah okay... fuck you Coinbase.

So I'm being advertised that this new thing is great and an awesome streamlined solution, and they want me to sign up for it all over again like it's yet again a completely separate project? Seriously these jackasses need to stop being such tools. They already have all my information. It's supposed to be intrinsically connected to Coinbase, they just told me as much in the exact website that contained the link to the sign-up page. Unbelievable.

So immediately my mind would begin to wonder if this is a huge 'upgrade' to the financial surveillance going on at Coinbase. I mean privacy is already a massive issue on centralized exchanges, but if companies like Coinbase start complying with the super ridiculous stuff (like reporting every trade higher than $600) then it's about to get a lot more egregious.

Why do I use Coinbase?

Personally this change does not really affect me at all and this post itself is highly exaggeratory. I'm simply annoyed by the way Coinbase markets these "upgrades" and gives none of the real reasons for why this business decision has been made. I'm annoyed that they want me to sign up for a service that I'm already signed up for (according to their own claims about the product). I find the entire situation suspect and think we should all be paying close attention to the aftermath of such a change.

But why do I actually use Coinbase?

I use it for two things:

A Fiat ramp connected to my bank account.
A litmus test for volume and spot price.

In my option, no one should actually trade on Coinbase. This is just basic common sense considering the high fees and surveillance state. There is no reason to shit where you eat. Coinbase is legally not able to offer us any kind of financial privacy, and thus should only be used in the absolute minimum capacity. If taking fiat into crypto, make the trade and exit the platform. If taking crypto into fiat, make the trade and exit to your bank account. This is really the only thing Coinbase should be used for in my opinion, and that goes doubly so with this weird rushed 'upgrade' in play.

Alright I jumped the gun...

I just tried to sign up for advanced trading and it was unsurprisingly like "that email already exists". So I don't have to create a separate account, but at the same time that just shows us how rushed this all is. The link from Coinbase Pro sends me to the sign up page even though every single person on Coinbase Pro already has an account? That's just amateur hour.

I actually forgot that if you sign into Coinbase Pro, you get automatically signed out of Coinbase, and vice versa. Obviously that is a bit strange and must has something to do with security measures and the fact that Coinbase and Coinbase Pro (GDAX) were separated services connected by a thin string.

I also have to point out how comically mistimed this 'upgrade' is. It's pretty funny that they market being able to earn 5% APY on assets when that's essentially the exact kind of thinking that completely bankrupted FTX. It also sets a very dangerous precedent.

Imagine if Hive/HBD got listed on Coinbase and then all of a sudden Coinbase was like "Earn 20% yields on your HBD". Obviously that would ruffle some feathers. It's only a matter of time before exchanges start powering up Hive and locking HBD in the savings accounts on purpose on behalf of their users. When that day comes, our 30 day limit on witness voting will be rendered completely irrelevant, because the stake will be powered up longer than that by design. This once again puts Hive under threat of centralized exchanges allocating user funds to attack our network with money that isn't theirs.

When this day comes, what do we do?

We might have to seriously consider not allowing certain accounts on Hive the ability to vote for witnesses. That's a very slippery slope, because then some Hive accounts have permission and some do not. For example, what if the network decided that Blocktrades was an exchange and is no longer able to vote for witnesses. A rule like that could get ugly very fast. Eh we'll figure it out when we get there, as Hive would probably have to x100 before we need to worry about such things.

3.5% pump

Apparently FED chair Powell will be making a (hawkish?) speech today about the economy and the fund rate and whatnot. It's very significant because Bitcoin has pumped slightly but the stock market has responded to it in the opposite way. I think this points more and more that Bitcoin is decoupled from the stock market. We should expect Bitcoin to deflate again back down but every little bit counts. This tiny pump is a very nice buffer considering that dips have been skyrocketing volume and transferring wealth to the diamond hands.

Conclusion

It is highly likely that Coinbase is cutting costs with this "upgrade" and rushing it through so they can drop Coinbase Pro entirely. Would be nice if they said as much because marketing it like it's a favor to me without actually giving the real reason is very annoying and shady.

Again, we should be using fiat ramps as little as possible due to the impending regulatory overreach that will almost certainly be the theme of 2023.

Honestly this change will likely end up pretty nice as the new UI looks almost identical to Trading View. That makes technical analysis much easier and getting rid of the 3rd party app that was Coinbase Pro was likely always in the cards. Now that the bear market is wrecking everyone they pushed it through ASAP.

With FTX out of the picture Coinbase may be able to scoop up extra market share by offering yields that are no longer available elsewhere. I think this sets a bad precedent but it is what it is. Sometimes we just have to go with the flow and see where it takes us.

Posted Using LeoFinance ^Beta