Major crypto trading platform Coinbase would temporarily cease its US affiliate-marketing program on July 19, according to leaked emails shared with Insider. The report cited the gloomy current crypto market conditions as the reason for the decision.
“We regret to inform you that Coinbase will be temporarily shutting down its Affiliate Program in the United States with an effective date of Tuesday, July 19th.”
The emails added, “This has not been an easy decision, nor was it made lightly, but, due to crypto market conditions and the outlook for the remainder of 2022, Coinbase is unable to continue supporting incentivized traffic to its platform.”
While the crypto exchange has revealed to relaunch the program in 2023, it didn’t share an exact timeline, as per the report.
Coinbase Losing Its Dominance
According to Bloomberg, Coinbase has lost its top ten positions and is now ranked the 14th largest exchange.
Additionally, its average market share among the top 30 crypto exchanges is currently 2.9%, far below 5.3% in the first quarter and 3.6% in the second quarter.
Meanwhile, data from Nomics showed that the exchange’s trading volume in the past 30 days has fallen behind OKX, FTX, and ByBit.
But Coinbase’s stock has shed by more than 80% from its record peak. During the first quarter of the year, the CEX registered a loss of nearly $430 million, dealing a heavy blow to its shareholders.
In contrast to its massive revenues during the 2021 bull market, the trading firm announced that it would sack 18% of its staff in June.
Besides that, the trading platform is facing tough competition on its home turf. Binance.US, the American wing of the global cryptocurrency giant Binance, recently introduced zero-fee trading to lure more customers, in an effort to grab the key market share from Coinbase.
However, it has managed to remain the dominant exchange in the United States in spite of the advances made by rivals like Binance.US.
After a series of lay-offs, Coinbase Co-founder and CEO Brian Armstrong have outlined the firm’s internal restructuring plans that include the exchange’s in-house teams, reporting hierarchies, and working methods.