Coinbase has been in the news lately for getting on the wrong side of both customers and regulators, but the cryptocurrency exchange made a different kind of headline on Monday when it said users in the United States will now be able to deposit their paychecks directly into their online accounts.
By Vance Cariaga
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The announcement appeared on a blog by Max Branzburg, Coinbase’s vice president of product. He said the feature will be launched in the “coming weeks” but did not specify an exact date. Customers can get paid in crypto or U.S. dollars and choose any percentage of their paychecks to deposit.
“With direct deposit, customers can more easily access our crypto-first financial services and be ready for any trade or purchase,” Branzburg wrote.
He also announced that starting this week, holders of the Coinbase debit card will be able to spend U.S. dollars as well as crypto while earning crypto rewards. Another new feature is that customers can now earn new rewards in three coins: 1% back in Dai (DAI) or 4% back in Amp (AMP) or Rally (RLY). The card already allowed them to earn 1% back in Ethereum (ETH), Dogecoin (DOGE) or Bitcoin (BTC), or 4% back in The Graph (GRT) and Stellar (XLM).
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The launch at least temporarily takes the focus off of a recent string of bad news, including customer complaints that frequent transfers from their bank accounts to Coinbase are time-consuming and inconvenient, CNBC reported.
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Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong countered by accusing the SEC of “sketchy behavior.”
