That article is unsettling yet not surprising, i have been expecting regulations with the increase in value, the government and banks are terrified at the thought of not getting a cut and not being able to control assets, though there will be ways around this, there is no way they can trace all the cryptocurrency use and exchange, we may live in a panopticon but they simply don't have the capacity.

In terms of Coinbase i think they are a disgusting company/bank, i would not use them except i live in UK England and they are very popular here, though i think i will move to Kraken now or maybe Coinfloor (who also have pretty bad rates tbh). We are seeing the beginning of the crypto war, regulations and companies are trying to control that which was once decentralised and free, it will be interesting to see how it plays out.

Also, am I right in saying that Coinbase provide an exchange where you can purchase cryptos for fiat, and sell your cryptos for fiat, with the exchange/company itself. Where as Poloniex and Bittrex for example provide a platform that provides you with a place to your Fiat inside it, then you can trade your fiat with other people who want to sell their cryptos. Obviously the major difference I am trying to highlight is that Coinbase are actually providing a buying service that as a company they sell you a coin, where as Poloniex etc provide a platform, not the currencies themselves?

If this is true, you can see how for Poloniex they have no reason to try and control the market as they charge fees for trade, where as Coinbase want to sell you expensive coins.

Also I may have just answered my own question, Coinbase are not on Coinmarketcap because they are not a trading service, but more like a retailer. For me, a resident of England UK, Coinbase behaving like this is hugely problematic to my obtaining coins.

I have a question, why is CoinBase not on coinmarketcap when clicking on the market pages for the currencies ? It is definitely dealing with millions yet it is no where to be seen on Ethereum, Bitcoin or Litecoin market?

Hi everyone, I have just created an account to become more active in the crypto scene, I hope what I am about to say resonates with some people, as I feel not enough people are talking about it, or maybe I am looking in the wrong place...

Today there were huge drops in the crypto scene, Ethereum was rapidly falling and had knocked off 15% since yesterday. As i sat at my desk refreshing coinmarketcap every half an hour I watched the crypto market cap fall about 15 billion in the space of a couple hours, pretty much every coin was in negative and were looking like they weren't slowing down.

So I go on Coinbase to see what their prices are and they are "down for maintenance", now lets not forget 2 days ago the exact same thing happened, coins crash down and Coinbase goes offline. Considering how huge Coinbase is, by them preventing people from selling their coins for fiat, they are obviously preventing and slowing down the drop in prices of the cryptos. So they literally prevent the panic selling that would lead to price deflation, then wait for the panic to be over, reopen, then everyone who sees the price has gone down buys and pumps the price back up to normal. To me this sounds like an incredibly artificial market, and not decentralised at all, we have a huge exchange who can essentially prevent price drop (which is obviously in their best interest, financially) and then reopen when they want.

Considering all of this I don't see how Coinbase are that different to a Bank, they will literally freeze your assets and their service when it isn't convenient for them, and furthermore they control the market. Is there anyone who is talking about the power of exchange services in detail? I feel like it is bullshit and is leading to a path where cryptos are not as free as we think.

As you can see my knowledge in this spectrum is not exactly sophisticated, but I think it is obvious that they are abusing the system and are becoming so powerful that they can completely manipulate the market.

What do people think about all of this?