Apple forces Coinbase to disable NFT transfers on Wallet app

Coinbase’s Wallet iOS application no longer supports NFT transactions due to Apple’s strict new guidelines for NFTs, which were announced in October.

“You may have noticed that you cannot send NFTs on Coin base Wallet iOS longer. This is because Apple blocked our latest app release until we disabled the feature,” the Coinbase Wallet account shared on Twitter on Thursday.

While NFTs are not outright banned in Apple’s mobile app store, they are subject to a hefty 30% tax on each transaction. If developers fail to implement this requirement, their app will be blocked from the store.

Coinbase said Apple wants to charge a 30% fee on everyone gas fees (ie transaction fees of Ethereum network) paid on NFT transfers completed through the wallet app, which Coinbase says is “not possible.”

“To anyone who understands how NFTs and blockchains work, this is clearly not possible,” Coinbase said. “Apple’s proprietary In-App Purchase system doesn’t support crypto, so we couldn’t comply even if we tried.”

Every time a user makes a transaction on the Ethereum network, even when simply transferring an asset such as an NFT to another wallet, the user must pay a fee known as gas. These fees required for the network to run. But they are more complicated than a flat fee and cannot be controlled by a single entity.

Gas prices – which are measured in gwei but paid in ETH – vary depending on Ethereum network traffic and the efficiency of a smart contracts code. And more advanced users can choose to pay more to place the transaction closer to the front of the queue.

Coinbase is not happy with these limitations of its mobile application, calls Apple’s decision “looks like Apple is trying to take a cut of fees for every email sent over open Internet protocols.”

Apple’s controversial in-app purchase fee has angered many crypto advocates, such as Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney, who previously fought against Apple’s rules in a trial and so the tech giant “must be stopped.”

Former YouTube CEO and current Polygon Studios CEO Ryan Wyatt has taken a similar stance, calling Apple’s 30% tax “criminal.” Wyatt believes that the tax “will forever hold back technological progress because of the monopoly over industry.”

And Twitter’s billionaire CEO Elon Musk is also not immune to Apple’s censorship, in the past express concerns that Apple may remove Twitter from its store (Musk then met with Apple CEO Tim Cook on Wednesday, and Cook apparently displaced these concerns).

Coinbase said it hopes this decision was simply “an oversight” and that it can be discussed further. It also believes that Apple’s strict NFT fee policy will make mainstream adoption of NFTs more difficult and will make it more cumbersome for users to transfer their assets.

“Apple has introduced new policies to protect their profits at the expense of consumer investment in NFTs and developer innovation across the crypto ecosystem,” Coinbase so.

While crypto enthusiasts on Twitter downplayed Apple’s restrictions today, others pointed to the potential for Solana’s Saga phonea Web3-native mobile device which is still under development and will not have such limitations. Its current Release date expected to be early next year.

“Today it was Apple, but tomorrow it could be Google,” so Solana’s communications manager Austin Federa in response to the news. “We need a third option.”

Apple has yet to respond Decryptits request for comment.