Coinbase Drops Lending Program

Coinbase Global ($COIN@US) is one of the largest crypto exchanges in the world, and it has long been an innovator in the field. While the firm was planning to launch an interest-yielding USD coin, those plans have been scrapped. In a blog post published on its website, the company said that it would no longer continue with its USDC program, choosing to halt it before it reached consumers. The post said in part, “As we continue our work to seek regulatory clarity for the crypto industry as a whole, we’ve made the difficult decision not to launch the USDC APY program.” The post went on to say that it has discontinued its waitlist for the program. USDC is a stablecoin that is pegged to the U.S. dollar and can be redeemed for $1 on a one-to-one basis. Coinbase noted that interest in this program was high. Its own program was slated to pay around a 4% annual percentage yield, far outpacing most traditional savings accounts—8 times higher than the national average. After the news broke, Coinbase stock dropped just over 50 cents or around 0.16% to just under $340 per share.