Dear Coinbase,
I am Peter Uliano, the founder of Hbar News. I have been in crypto for quite some time and was a customer of yours. Having been a part of the Hedera HBAR community for a while has led me to my frustration with you as a company and your practices.
Why do you snub us?
Why are you not listening to your customers and what they want?
Twitter user @HbarDanny has been tweeting for 79 days straight asking for you to list HBAR and you have no answer and remain virtually silent to our community.
I myself in early 2021 set up a website that users filled out a form and it auto-emailed you a prewritten message asking for a listing. This form was filled out by over 700 people and that was prior to new users and the ever expanding ecosystem. I also asked the NBA star, Spencer Dinwiddie who is also building Calaxy on Hedera if he thinks you should list HBAR and he responded publicly and even said that Brian Armstrong himself should absolutely list HBAR.
So, If you do not listen to your own customers, I have to assume you have an ulterior motive or a nefarious reason for not listing HBAR. Now I am not one to assume because there is a famous saying that says when you assume (ass|u|me) you make an ass out of you and me. However, the evidence has shown in this case that you do not want to list, want to comment on why and widely ignore a whole community of your customers who would be using your platform for the sole purpose of investing in an asset that they think is a good investment.
I note that you listed DESO by decentralized social, only after your own VC firm backed the project. The listing ultimately lead to a 100% increase in price, in turn making you more money. Is this your practice? To only list coins in which you will profit off of? I ask this with genuine concern and curiosity. I mean even Jack Dorsey of Twitter has stated:
Now of course according to some this practice is not limited to just you guys over at Coinbase as shown in this quote by Lina M. Khan (Chair of the FTC) :
“Other exchanges like Kraken, FTX, and Gemini are also all active in venture, and have listed their own investments.”
However, stop pretending to be a company that cares about its customers and investors and tell the truth…
You have not listed HBAR because you have not invested in it and although everyone in the crypto-verse screams “Decentralization” you like to take the centralized approach and look out for your own pocket and list what you have a stake in. I get it a company is designed to make money, make a profit and strive, but at what expense? You are one of the worlds leading platforms and this is how you treat your customers? Using the “Coinbase effect” to give an unfair advantage to yourself?
I know, I am a nobody in your eyes and you will not see this nor care to respond if you do. However your customers deserve an answer! They deserve to know why you snub them, their suggestions, their pleas, and widely ignore a whole community of people who only want to be included in your exclusive little club.
I for one could care less at this point because the community is growing, has major enterprise level use cases and a governing council made up of some of the best companies in the world. We do not need you, but still the fact that you snub your own customers is a problem and a concern and you need to answer to them, need to provide transparency, and need to explain yourself!
VR,
Peter G. Uliano
Sources:
https://www.crypto-news-flash.com/coinbase-has-been-listing-coins-it-invests-in-without-disclosing-research-finds/
https://ambcrypto.com/is-the-coinbase-effect-giving-the-exchange-an-unfair-advantage/
https://bitcoinist.com/coinbase-hit-second-class-action-lawsuit-violating-unclaimed-property-laws/
In watching the Max Walker Williams interview of Mance and Leemon, I came to the conclusion that it is not Coinbase that is holding up HBAR listing, I think it’s Hedera holding back on the listing. Coinbase and Uphold both telegraphed full listing of HBAR in the September 2021 time frame, but then nothing happened. Other coins were added by both platforms during that same time. There’s no explanation for HBAR mysteriously being ignored by those platforms other than a resistance or preference NOT to be listed by Hedera management.
My theory is that they have a “Shock and Awe” strategy planned that involves new listings, actual use cases driving TPS, perhaps some big name GC additions when the timing is right … Then add CB to pour gas on the fire.