Coinbase Disables NFT Trading on Wallet Due to Apple’s App Store Policies – Here’s What Happened

cryptonews.com:

Major crypto exchange Coinbase announced that users can no longer transfer non-fungible tokens (NFTs) using Coinbase Wallet iOS - the 'culprit' being Apple's App Store policy. 

"You might have noticed you can't send NFTs on Coinbase Wallet iOS anymore," said Coinbase in their tweet on Thursday, accusing Apple of forcing it to remove the NFT transfer option from its iOS wallet.

The statement claimed that, 

"This is because Apple blocked our last app release until we disabled the feature."

And the issue comes down to money - Apple allegedly wants its cut. 

As is well known in the cryptoverse, in order to send NFTs, there are some gas fees involved. According to the exchange, however, the iPhone maker stated that these fees have to be paid through the company's proprietary In-App Purchase system - the reason being that Apple aims to collect 30% of the gas fee.

Per Coinbase Wallet,

"Simply put, Apple has introduced new policies to  protect their profits at the expense of consumer investment in NFTs and developer innovation across the crypto ecosystem."

The wallet provider goes on to suggest that, if Apple understood the way in which blockchains and NFTs worked, it would be apparent to them that their idea "is clearly not possible." Apple's system does not support crypto payments, said Coinbase, "so we couldn’t comply even if we tried."

This is akin to Apple trying to take a cut of fees for every email that gets sent over open Internet protocols.

However, Coinbase argued that there is an even bigger issue caused by the policy change, and one that directly impacts Apple users who're NFT holders. To be more precise, per the exchange, Apple "made it a lot harder" for those who hold an NFT in a wallet on an iPhone to transfer their own NFT