Coinbase CEO’s ‘free listing’ claims face backlash from Justin Sun, Andre Cronje

TRON founder Justin Sun recently disputed claims by Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong claiming that Coinbase provides free listings for assets.

Sun shared that, contrary to Coinbase CEO’s recent public statements, his experience with Coinbase involved financial demands.

According to the TRON (TRX) founder, Coinbase allegedly demanded payment of 500 million TRX, worth approximately $80 million, to list the network’s native token. However, he emphasized that Binance does not charge any fee to list the asset on its platform.

Binance charged us $0.

Coinbase demanded that we pay 500 million TRX (worth $80 million) and requested a $250 million BTC deposit to Coinbase Custody to improve their performance.

I respect you very much. But this is absolutely not true. https://t.co/faEgtGLLhW

— HE Justin Sun🌞(hiring) (@justinsuntron) November 4, 2024

Additionally, the TRON founder claimed that Coinbase requested a $250 million Bitcoin (BTC) deposit on Coinbase Custody to increase the liquidity of the platform. While Sun stated that he respected the exchange, he insisted that Coinbase’s listing process was far from free.

Sun’s remarks were supported by Sonic Labs co-founder Andre Cronje, who also noted experiences with Coinbase’s listing practices.

Binance charged us $0.

Coinbase asked us to: $300 million, $50 million, $30 million and more recently $60 million.

I respect you very much. But this is absolutely not true.

— Andre Cronje (@AndreCronjeTech) November 3, 2024

Cronje stated that Coinbase has made requests to its teams for amounts ranging from $30 million to $300 million.

This discussion gained momentum after Moonrock Capital CEO Simon Dedic first highlighted the issue. Dedic shared his frustration with the cost of securing a listing on Binance and detailed a recent case where Binance allegedly demanded 15% of a project’s total token supply.

I recently spoke with a Tier 1 project that achieved close to nine figures.

After dealing with Binance for over a year, they finally received a listing offer.

Binance wanted 15% of the total token supply.

Imagine paying $50 to $100 million for just one CEX listing.

Immortality…

— Simon (@sjdedic) 31 October 2024

For some projects, this demand may amount to between 50 million and 100 million dollars. Dedic stated that this beach is unaffordable and detrimental to the financial health of the projects.

He argued that such high fees contribute to market volatility and liquidity problems, especially for emerging projects.

Armstrong took the opportunity to present Coinbase’s alternative approach, noting that the exchange does not charge fees for asset listings. However, statements from Sun and Cronje aimed to refute this statement.

Meanwhile, Luke Youngblood, a former Coinbase Cloud Engineer, disputed Sun and Cronje’s claims and emphasized that Coinbase has never charged fees for listings.

Coinbase does not charge for listings. They never have and they never will.

— LukeYoungblood.eth 🛡️ (@LukeYoungblood) November 3, 2024

Youngblood suggested they may have encountered scammers impersonating Coinbase brokers, a growing concern in the crypto industry.