Coinbase Commerce Teases Solana and Lightning Network Integration

Coinbase Commerce, the offshoot of the American crypto trading platform designed to enable acceptance of crypto payments by merchants has unveiled its plans to integrate Solana (SOL) and Lightning Network in the long term.

Coinbase Commerce is Re-Strategizing

With the ongoing evolution in the digital currency ecosystem, Coinbase Commerce is restrategizing in a bid to further empower its users and onboarded merchants.

According to a recent X post from Lauren Dowling, the firm’s Product Lead, the team has been evaluating its products and has made some changes to meet its core goals of serving everyone. As part of its efforts, Lauren noted that Coinbase Commerce has removed support for Bitcoin payments and UTXO for some reasons.

She noted that the unavailability of smart contract enablement on Bitcoin has further made crypto payments difficult to automate, especially for Coinbase Commerce with a growing user base. The Product Lead also noted that the absence of native stablecoin on Bitcoin has further complicated the entire mission of the firm as it relates to BTC.

Despite removing support for Bitcoin, Lauren confirmed that users can still transact with other assets Base, Polygon, and Ethereum, or protocols that conform with the ERC-20 standard.

Lauren noted that the plans to integrate Solana and the Lightning Network are the firm’s attempt to continually explore new ways to enhance the experiences of its customers. The integration will also position it in a place to properly evaluate support for other payment rails to drive inclusion in the blockchain world.

10/ We are constantly exploring new ways to enhance the experience for our customers, including evaluating support for other payment rails like the Lightning Network and Solana and welcome your feedback.

— Lauren Dowling (@Lauren_Dowling_) February 17, 2024

Coinbase Exerting Dominance in the Industry

Coinbase might be trailing Binance Exchange in terms of daily trading volume, it certainly is harnessing its influence in the United States market, especially through the Coinbase Custody venture.

Beyond Coinbase Commerce, the exchange’s custody is the dominant one being embraced by the majority of the spot Bitcoin ETF issuers in the country. From BlackRock Inc. to Grayscale Investments, the embrace of Coinbase Custody has positioned the trading platform as one of the most important players in the successes the Spot Bitcoin ETF products have received thus far.

With its positioning and strategic products, Coinbase recorded a better-than-expected revenue boost in the fourth quarter of 2023. Per an earlier Coingape report, the firm’s profit for Q4 came in at $273.4 million, up from a loss of $557 million in the year-ago period. 

Following the earnings release, the company’s shares jumped by 15% on Friday to $180.31