The Coinbase platform has announced that it will pause all Ethereum transactions during The Merge as a precautionary measure.
Coinbase Announces Planned Pause
Coinbase, the largest crypto exchange in the United States by trading volume, has found it necessary to prepare for The Merge by adopting several precautionary measures, revealing them in a recently published blog post. The primary precautionary measure that Coinbase is adopting is to briefly pause the withdrawals and deposits of ETH and other ERC-20 tokens on its platform till the entire Merge migration is completed. According to the statement, this move will ensure that ETH and ERC-20 tokens are easily traded once the migration is complete and provide a seamless user experience post-Merge.
Precautionary Measures For Merge
The highly anticipated Merge upgrade that will transition the Ethereum network from Proof-of-Work (PoW) to a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) protocol is in its final stages. The developers have set the tentative timeline of September 15 for the final migration of the upgrade, which will speed up transaction speeds, lower gas fees and energy usage, and make the platform much more scaleable. As such, many crypto exchanges and other crypto service providers are gearing up for this momentous change, even though the Ethereum team has reassured that it will not affect user funds in any way.
Coinbase has also stated that the move to pause Ethereum-based services is strictly a precautionary measure, and the team is not expecting any serious impacts.
An excerpt from the Coinbase statement reads,
“This downtime allows us to ensure that the transition has been successfully reflected by our systems. We do not expect any other networks or currencies to be impacted and expect no impact to trading for ETH and ERC-20 tokens across our centralized trading products.”
Guidelines For Users
The Coinbase team also took the users through what to expect in the days leading up to the Merge and after it. Users were cautioned to be on high alert for scams, as such moments of transition are prime times of activity for malicious actors. The team has warned users not to send ETH to anyone who claims to be able to upgrade them to “ETH2,” which is a misnomer.
Furthermore, it also clarified that the users need not take any action for the upgrade and that all their funds will stay safely in the protocol, and they will be able to access it in their wallet on the platform once the Merge is completed. Staked ETH will also appear listed separately from any unstaked ETH.
Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.