Coinbase, the largest crypto exchange in the U.S., has enabled transfers on Ethereum competitor Solana and on scaling solution Polygon.
The move will make it easier for users to access Polygon and Solana, and will simplify sending assets across networks, a process that’s time-consuming and expensive.
“Sending crypto on Ethereum has become increasingly expensive for individual users and institutions,” Coinbase said in a news release. “But as blockchain usage has surged, gas fees … have skyrocketed, pricing out millions of would-be users.”
Over the next month, eligible customers will be able to use Polygon to trade ETH, the USDC stablecoin and the network’s native MATIC token, the company said. They will also be able to use Solana to trade USDC.
Solana boasts faster transaction times and lower fees than Ethereum, but has at times struggled to keep its system up and running. Polygon, as an L2, is built on top of Ethereum, and is meant to take advantage of the network’s dominant market share while minimizing its drawbacks, namely the variable and often costly transaction fees known as “gas.”
Explore Web3
Coinbase users will be able to explore web3 at a fraction of the cost and time, the company said.
“Users must purchase crypto on an exchange, send it to their self-custodial wallet, then use a bridge to send their crypto to a different chain. As a result, it can take approximately 20 minutes, $50 in gas, and 10 protracted steps to move your assets from ETH to Polygon to purchase a NFT via OpenSea,” Coinbase said.
Polygon co-founder Mihailo Bjelic celebrated the news on Twitter.
“You have been waiting for this one fam,” he wrote. “Another important piece of infrastructure for mass adoption of Polygon fell into place.”
He wasn’t the only one to celebrate.
“Woke up to a nice little surprise this morning. About a year ago I sent $500 worth or $MATIC to my coinbase account on the polygon chain by accident,” tweeted 0xHutcho. “Thought i lost it forever but it arrived in my account this morning.”
