Coinbase Kills Another Product

Sead Fadilpašić
Last updated: | 2 min read

U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase removed its Bundle product less than a year since its launch.

Source: iStock/Ekkaluck

Coinbase Bundle was a basket of cryptocurrencies supported on Coinbase, which users could buy in proportion to their market capitalization in U.S. dollars. The smallest Bundle was USD 25. The five coins included were Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Ethereum Classic.

The removal of this option happened rather quietly, with only three questions answered in the exchange’s FAQ page. The conclusions given are that:

  • the purchases of Coinbase Bundle have been deprecated
  • all assets purchased in the Coinbase Bundle have been redistributed to their individual asset wallets
  • users will not have a standalone wallet for their Coinbase Bundle purchase
  • users will not be able to view their purchase in Accounts, but can find it under Tools > History
  • the amount of cryptocurrencies purchased as part of a Coinbase Bundle will not change
  • “This is a cosmetic-only change”, the FAQ states.

The Coinbase Bundle project was first announced at the end of September 2018, as part of a series of updates that were meant to “simplify every step of the journey to owning your first cryptocurrencies”. It was meant to give customers an option of how much cryptocurrency they want to own, which were then stored in their respective wallets, and each could’ve been bought, sold, sent and received as an individual asset.

There is no reason given as to why the product was shut down, and Coinbase was not available for immediate comment. The news was first reported by the Block.

As reported in October 2018, Coinbase also decided to shut down its Coinbase Index Fund, citing lower-than-expected demand from retail, accredited and institutional investors.

Meanwhile, now, the crypto community is discussing what might have killed Bundle. Kyle Samani, managing partner at crypto hedge fund Multicoin Capital, tweeted that this shut down is “more evidence that no one wants passive diversified crypto exposure”, adding that “People in crypto are so far down the risk curve. Everyone wants to trade themselves.”

Some replied that passive investing in an immature market is not a good idea, others added that it didn’t provide diversification needed in passive investing, and third argued that the product wasn’t suitable for the target audience with the available assets.

In either case, crypto baskets was a new trend among various crypto platforms in 2018, as multiple companies offered their own crypto bundles.

Meanwhile, just yesterday Coinbase released their new suit of signalling tools, which should provide a look into its top 10% traders, as well as information about trading behavior and price correlation to all Coinbase customers for free.