Key Points
- Coinbase’s CEO’s latest remarks following Binance-related accusations have triggered a controversy in the industry.
- Andre Cronje and Justin Sun addressed the issue, alleging high fees for token listings on Coinbase.
A November 2 post via X made by Coinbase’s CEO, Brian Armstrong is making waves in the crypto industry, highlighting zero fees required on new asset listings on the exchange. His comments came following recent accusations surrounding Binance.
Important names including Sonic Labs’ founder, Andre Cronje, and Tron’s Justin Sun spoke on the matter, saying that “it is simply not true.”
Also, Binance’s co-founder Yi He and Coinbase’s builder addressed the issues surrounding the exchanges’ listing fees.
Coinbase’s CEO Brian Armstrong’s Latest Remarks
On November 2, Coinbase’s CEO, Brian Armstrong, shared a post via his X account, saying that asset listings on Coinbase are free, and telling users to drop a note to the exchange via their Asset Hub for support. He also said that DEXes are a great option as well.
Armstrong’s post came as a response to Moonrock Capital’s CEO, Simon. Moonrock Capital is a blockchain advisory and investment firm incubating and accelerating early-stage startups since 2019.
Armstrong shared his remarks related to a post made by Simon on October 31 via X, in which he said that he recently spoke to a Tier 1 project that raised close to nine figures.
According to him, after the project “wasted” over a year of due diligence with Binance, they received an offer made by the exchange, which asked for 15% of their total token supply. Simon was outraged by projects allegedly having to pay $50 to $100 million for a CEX listing.
He said that this is unaffordable for projects, and these tokens are the biggest reason for bleeding charts.
Andre Cronje and Justin Sun Deny Armstrong’s Claims
Following, Armstrong’s post via X, the co-founder of Sonic Labs, Andre Cronje, shared a post on November 3, and said that Binance charged them $0 for listings, while Coinbase has asked for $300 million, $50 million, and, more recently, $60 million.
He finished his message by saying, “Lots of respect. But this is simply not true.”
Tron’s founder, Justin Sun, commented and highlighted that the same happened to them. He said that Binance did not charge them any listing fees, while Coinbase required them to pay 500 million TRX (worth about $80 million), and demanded a $250 million deposit in Coinbase Custody to boost their performance.
Sun also ended his message with the same words as Cronje, highlighting that Armstrong’s statement is not true.
Coinbase’s Brian Armstrong hasn’t released any new statements following Cronje and Sun’s posts.
However, Luke Young, former Ethereum staking builder at Coinbase addressed the issue and said that while Coinbase doesn’t charge listing fees, the Earn platform could offer educational campaigns that come with marketing fees, which could be mistaken for listing fees.
Binance Co-Founder Yi He Addresses Binance’s Rules and Recent Statements
In regards to Cronje’s recent statement, Binance’s co-founder Yi He, addressed the rules regarding Binance listing to clarify the allegations made about the exchange by Moonrock Capital’s CEO.
In a post on X dated November 3, she said that if a project does not pass the screening process, it cannot be listed on Binance, regardless of the amount of money/tokens involved.
She noted that Binance has listed projects in the token distribution column, and users should analyze the percentage to know if there is really a so-called 20% there.
She also highlighted that the airdrop rules for Binance’s launchpool and other listings are clear and transparent, but this doesn’t mean that projects that are willing to give airdrops can be listed on Binance.
She gave an example and said that if a project has 20% tokens and wants to cooperate with Binance for airdrops, they can do so via the Web3 wallet.
At the end of her message, Binance’s co-founder said that FUD will never go away from the industry, but it is what makes people stronger.
She said that gossip is easy to get traffic, and business competition is filled with dark sides – but when people understand the rules of how the world works, they will no longer be affected by rumors and will be able to think for themselves.
She finished by saying that people like Andre Cronje who have the courage to speak the truth through all the noise are the ones who truly deserve respect in the crypto community.
As a conclusion, we can only highlight the importance of transparency and honesty related to crypto exchanges’ rules in the crypto industry to avoid confusing or misleading users.
