Celo, a outstanding Layer-1 blockchain, has seen its native token dump 5% after its upcoming transition to an Ethereum Layer-2 community inside Optimism’s Superchain ecosystem turned “contentious.”
On Nov. 27, Coinbase, the biggest US-based crypto change, introduced that it will not help Celo’s migration right into a Layer 2 community. In distinction, Tether’s CEO Paolo Ardoino confirmed the stablecoin issuer’s continued help for the community post-transition into the Ethereum ecosystem.
Knowledge from CryptoSlate confirmed that this uncertainty negatively impacted the community’s CELO token, which fell 5% to $0.81039 at press time.
Neighborhood response
These diverging views sparked combined reactions inside the neighborhood, with many criticizing Coinbase’s choice.
Marek Olszewski, CEO of Celo’s developer cLabs, expressed disappointment with Coinbase’s stance. He questioned whether or not this choice may deter different Ethereum Digital Machine (EVM)-compatible Layer-1 chains from embracing Ethereum’s Layer-2 scaling options.
In the meantime, the founding father of Kraken’s Inkchain, Andrew Koller, assured that his change would help the migration into an L2. He acknowledged:
“Kraken and Ink [loves] the superchain and are fully committed to Ethereum scaling and making Kraken work for Celo users. we’ve asked the relevant teams to explore this to see if we can hit everything in time for Jan. 16th.”
Regardless of the setback, Olszewski urged the Celo neighborhood may take into account renaming its present Layer-1 chain to “Celo Gold (CGLD)” to accommodate Coinbase’s present help framework. He hinted that this may simplify future adoption if Coinbase helps the Layer-2 improve.
Neighborhood urges Coinbase to rethink
EigenLayer founder Sreeram Kannan speculated that Coinbase’s choice may stem from “an oversight” slightly than outright opposition. He inspired the change to revisit its stance, emphasizing the potential advantages of supporting Celo’s integration into the OP Stack.
Kannan acknowledged:
“I think this is likely an oversight internally in Coinbase. There is no chance the company building the leading Ethereum L2 in users and a core contributor to OP public goods will choose to discontinue supporting Celo after it becomes an OP stack based L2.”
However, Nass Eddequiouaq, the CEO of a16z-funded crypto startup Bastion, highlighted the operational and regulatory complexities exchanges face when including help for brand spanking new chains, significantly within the US. He added:
“Exchanges and custodian have usually been waiting to see which branch of the fork picks up the activity before adding support for it and deprecating the other one.”