- Tether strategist Gabor Gurbacs has called out Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN) for its recent comments regarding USDC.
- Gurbacs took issue with Coinbase referring to rival USD Coin’s yield as rewards.
- The Tether strategist highlighted similar concerns regarding Coinbase and USDC earlier this year.
Gabor Gurbacs, a strategist and advisor for stablecoin giant Tether Holdings, has called out crypto exchange Coinbase for its recent comments regarding the yield of USD Coin (USDC). The Tether strategist questioned Coinbase’s categorization of rival stablecoin USDC’s yield as rewards.
I am not sure why Coinbase uses the word “rewards” is used in their USDC yield product when the underlying investment is clearly treasuries which pay “yield”/“interest” which is shared from the Centre Consortium to Circle and Coinbase to the customer in a structured product. pic.twitter.com/TD5fb6lIrU— Gabor Gurbacs (@gaborgurbacs) August 2, 2023
Coinbase took to Twitter earlier today to announce that users who hold USDC on the crypto exchange would earn 4.6% rewards on the stablecoin. Gurbacs took issue with Coinbase referring to USDC’s yield products as rewards and highlighted that the underlying investment was treasuries that paid out yield or interest, which was shared from the Centre Consortium to Coinbase and USDC issuer Circle Internet Financial.
According to the Tether strategist, the yield provided to the end user/holder of USDC is a structured product rather than rewards. For reference, the Centre Consortium was founded by Circle and Coinbase in 2018 to provide governance and standards for future crypto ecosystems. The joint venture’s first offering was USD-pegged stablecoin USD Coin.
“Coinbase shouldn’t pretend that they are running a loyalty program. It is not a loyalty program when you pass on the interest from what you earn from treasuries/treasury securities. It’s a structured yield product,” Gurbacs tweeted. He further blamed Coinbase and Circle’s actions for bringing shame to multiple industries, including crypto.
Gurbacs, who strategizes for the firm behind the world’s largest stablecoin, believes that Coinbase shouldn’t refer to USDC’s yield as rewards. According to him, the rewards program from the crypto exchange did not bear any similarities to loyalty points, which are considered rewards. Earlier this year, Gurbacs highlighted Coinbase’s use of terms like annual percentage yield (APY) and yield and questioned the source of the yield.
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