Coinbase Late to The Party With ETH 2.0 Staking Waiting List

In an announcement on Feb. 17, Coinbase stated that it was opening a waiting list for customers that wish to participate in ETH 2.0 staking.

“By joining the waitlist today, customers will be first in line to earn ETH2 staking rewards. Getting rewarded with different cryptocurrencies is one of our top requests.”

ETH2 staking rewards are coming soon to Coinbase. Learn how you may be able to put your Ethereum to work and earn up to 7.5% APR. Join the waitlist: https://t.co/ho0WBzubHj pic.twitter.com/86zhqGHvOT

— Coinbase (@coinbase) February 16, 2021

Where is The List Again?

However, the staking page, did not actually provide an obvious way to join any list at the time of writing. As with most things Coinbase related, there were limitations;

“To stake on Coinbase, you must have your identity verified with a valid TIN on file, and reside in a location where staking is allowed.”

There were multiple links to the “support center” but no mention of ETH 2.0 staking or any list to join. It was an old page about Tezos. The announcement added;

“Once off the waitlist, there are no minimum amounts required to stake, and customers can convert, stake, and earn rewards on a portion of Ethereum instead of their entire balance. They will also be able to see their rewards add up in real-time through the lifetime rewards ticker in the Coinbase app or on Coinbase.com.”

There was no mention of fees either, but they are not likely to be small considering the 25% it takes in commission from Tezos stakers. Coinbase promises a return of up to 7.5% on ETH 2.0 but the actual APY is closer to 9% which gives some idea of how much of a cut they’re going to take.

Last to The Staking Party

Coinbase is at least two months behind its competitors with this as exchanges such as Binance, Huobi, OKEx, and Kraken offered ETH 2.0 staking shortly after Beacon Chain was launched in early December – and there was no waiting list.

Binance has simplified staking with its dashboard and provides BETH tokens representing the amount of ETH staked. At the time of writing Kraken had the largest amount staked with over 470,000 ETH according to Etherscan, while Binance had 288,000 split over several addresses.

Waiting lists appear to be a common theme for Coinbase which has launched a number of crypto rewards programs only to attract long lists of complaints from disgruntled customers stuck on waiting lists for them.