Coinbase resumes support for GBP deposits and raises fees for Coinbase Pro

The well-known cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase in the United States recently announced that they have restored the ability for their UK customers to make GBP transfers.

According to the announcement on October 3rd, Coinbase not only announced support for Pound Sterling transfers, but also mentioned that it will add support for five cryptocurrencies to GBP wallets - BAT, ZRX, Augur, REP, XLM, and XRP.

After obtaining an e-money license from the Financial Conduct Authority in the UK, Coinbase initially launched Pound Sterling support in 2018. It also secured access to the UK's Faster Payments Scheme (FPS) by opening an account with London banking giant Barclays.

However, a year later, Barclays cut ties with the exchange, leaving UK Coinbase customers to deal with their Pound deposits and withdrawals.

The good news is that Clearbank is now the new banking partner for Coinbase in London, and the reinstatement of Pound Sterling support reportedly comes from a new deal between Coinbase and Clearbank, as reported by Bloomberg.

Clearbank is also a member of the UK's FPS scheme, allowing customers to make near-instant transfers between UK bank accounts and Coinbase wallets.

Coinbase UK CEO Zeeshan Feroz stated:

This is a highly unregulated emerging industry, so one of the challenges traditional banks face is that crypto doesn't fit one of the existing models for other industries. So understanding the crypto space and how to manage the risk requires a significant investment and resources.

Users are starting to get unhappy with the increasing fees on Coinbase Pro

Coinbase will introduce higher tier account rates at 22:00 UTC on October 7th. The new rates are as follows:

Although Coinbase attempts to explain the increase as a minor adjustment and a response to customer demand, prominent crypto analyst AlexKrüger's tweet indicates that fees will increase significantly, up to 150%, for low-volume accounts with trades below $10,000.

According to comments on Coinbase's blog announcement, the planned fee increase has angered many retail traders, who believe it is a mistake and could potentially drive customers away during times of distress in the crypto markets.

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