• Coinbase Borrow, a feature that allowed users to take out loans of up to $1 million against 40% of their Bitcoin holdings, will be scrapped from May 10.
• Coinbase sent an email notifying users about the change and said current loans would not be impacted.
• The company is engaged in a regulatory scuffle with the SEC for potential securities law violations.
Coinbase Scrapping its Borrow Feature
Coinbase announced that it will no longer offer its Borrow feature from May 10th. This feature allowed users to take out loans of up to $1 million against 40% of their Bitcoin holdings without any credit checks involved and with interest rates around 9% annually. A notice was sent out to Coinbase users informing them about the change, but without any explanation on why this decision was made.
SEC Regulatory Scuffle
The announcement comes when Coinbase is currently engaged in a regulatory scuffle with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). In March, the SEC sent a Wells notice to Coinbase for potential securities law violations and last week, Coinbase filed a legal action in federal court to compel the SEC to respond to its 2022 petition that asked for guidance for the crypto industry.
Impact On Current Loans
The emailed notice did not provide any reason for scrapping the feature and mentioned that current loans of users will not be impacted and they will still have access to their loan history and the Borrow dashboard.
Amazon NFT Marketplace Rumors
Rumors have also been circulating recently that Amazon might launch an NFT marketplace soon. Although no official confirmation has been given yet by Amazon, if true it could have major implications for both cryptocurrency markets as well as non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
Bitdeer Expansion To Bhutan
Bitdeer also announced plans this month to expand into Bhutan, expecting to raise $500M through investments and partnerships within the country’s blockchain sector. Bitdeer provides cloud mining services which allows customers access hash power without having to buy expensive hardware or deal with complicated setup processes typically required with traditional mining solutions.