First Mover Americas: Coinbase Seeks New Revenue Stream From Layer 2 Network

Coinbase (COIN), the large publicly traded U.S. crypto exchange, said its new Base blockchain, a “layer 2 network,” has gone live, heralding the start of a new era of public companies running their own distributed networks. Base was already live for testing by developers, and it became open to the public at noon ET on Wednesday. The move could ultimately allow Coinbase to garner fees from running its own blockchain, in addition to a potentially even more lucrative stream of revenue from applications built atop it, executives say. Layer 2 networks are built atop base ones, relieving congestion on the underlying network. Base is built upon the Ethereum blockchain.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission will file an “interlocutory appeal” of a judge’s ruling on Ripple’s programmatic sales of XRP, the regulator said in a court filing on Wednesday. The SEC said it was seeking to “leave to” appeal part of a recent decision while other parts of the SEC’s case proceed to trial. The regulator said approval of an appeal could prevent the SEC and government from needing two trials. The SEC sued Ripple in 2020 on grounds that it was selling an unregistered security. Last month, a federal judge ruled that Ripple’s programmatic sales — where it listed XRP on exchanges for anyone to purchase — weren’t securities transactions, whereas Ripple’s direct sales to institutional clients were.

(Source: Lisa Abramowicz, Bloomberg)