Cardano Enthusiasts Are Disappointed With Crypto Exchange Coinbase — Here’s Why

By now, it’s pretty well established that the Cardano community eagerly awaits moving forward with the long-delayed Vasil upgrade. But U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase is taking its sweet time getting ready for the upcoming hard fork, drawing substantial fire from ADA enthusiasts.

Coinbase Yet To Update Cardano Nodes In Preparation For Vasil

Coinbase is not ready for Cardano’s Vasil upgrade.

Cardano is a peer-reviewed proof-of-stake (PoS) network that is smart contract-enabled and aims to solve global issues encompassing identity management. Its native token ADA is the eighth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, according to data pulled from CoinMarketCap.

Per a recently-published update by Input Output Global (IOG) — the development lab for the Cardano blockchain — Bitrue, BitMart, MEXC, and LCX are the only exchanges that have already updated their ADA nodes in readiness for the Vasil upgrade. Others like Bitfinex, Hotbit, Upbit, Kraken, OKex, and Binance are currently integrating the hotly-anticipated upgrade.

Coinbase, notably, has not started preparing for the Vasil hard fork.

For the Vasil hard fork to go live on the mainnet, at least 25 crypto exchanges, which account for most of ADA’s liquidity, must be onboarded. If most exchanges update their nodes, Coinbase users could encounter problems while conducting ADA transactions, such as coin withdrawals.

Per PoolTool, the bulk of Cardano nodes is already reporting the latest version. 77% of block-producing stake pool operators (SPOs) are already running on node 1.35.3 — this is well above the 75% target.

Vasil, named after late Cardano champion Mathematician Vasil Dabov, is supposed to improve Cardano’s scaling capabilities dramatically.

The Vasil hard fork has already been postponed several times this year, with the most recent being at the end of July owing to bugs discovered on the testnet. However, Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson recently suggested the Vasil upgrade will ship “sometime in September”. Interestingly, it will coincide with Ethereum’s much-anticipated Merge event.