Coinbase today announced that it will discontinue its trader-focused Coinbase Pro service at the end of this year.
The Coinbase.com standalone Pro service offered lower fees for traders who interacted with the Coinbase Exchange order books. It will be replaced Advanced Trade which offers similar features, but will remain within the Coinbase app and website.
Coinbase.com is more user-friendly and accessible for retail users than Coinbase Pro. However, it charges flat transaction costs on top of each trade as well as percentage commission or spreads. Many power users used Coinbase Pro to execute trades and then transferred funds to their Coinbase.com accounts.
Coinbase stated that the reason the former was being discontinued was due to duplicate features and friction when transferring balances between Coinbase.com/Coinbase Pro.
Coinbase Pro users took this afternoon to Twitter to complain about the service’s end, with many citing its lower prices.
However, the company has committed to honor Coinbase Pro’s fees in the new Advanced Trade section on Coinbase.com. Advanced Trade is available for desktop users already. Coinbase plans to release a mobile version within the Coinbase app over the next few weeks.
This news comes as cryptocurrency exchanges try to retain users and reduce the impact of the current bear market. Coinbase rival BinanceUS just announced today that it is eliminating trading fees for Bitcoin trades with U.S. dollar stablecoins.
Coinbase stock dropped almost 10% to $51.80 today shortly after the announcement of its rival. The stock of America’s most-popular cryptocurrency exchange has lost almost 80% since January.
