Justin Sun Says Coinbase Wanted $80M in TRX and $250M BTC Deposit for Token Listing

Tron Foundation founder Justin Sun has called out an alleged dishonesty by Brian Armstrong, the CEO of widely used US-based trading platform Coinbase. Over the weekend, Armstrong invited interested projects to apply for a listing on Coinbase, claiming that the “asset listings on Coinbase are free.”

However, the Coinbase CEO’s public call has received feedback from prominent voices in the industry, alleging that the exchange does not list tokens for free. Leading the voice is Tron Foundation founder Justin Sun, who revealed the large demands that Coinbase made when his project sought a listing on the platform.

According to Sun, Coinbase “required [possibly Tron Foundation] to pay 500 million TRX (worth $80 million) and demanded a $250 million BTC deposit in Coinbase Custody to boost their performance.” Notably, Brian Armstrong has not accepted or denied the claims of the exorbitant listing fee.

Binance charged us $0.

Coinbase required us to pay 500 million TRX (worth $80 million) and demanded a $250 million BTC deposit in Coinbase Custody to boost their performance.

Lots of respect. But this is simply not true. https://t.co/faEgtGLLhW

— H.E. Justin Sun🌞(hiring) (@justinsuntron) November 4, 2024

Meanwhile, Andre Cronje of Sonic Labs (formerly Fantom) seconded Justin Sun’s claims, revealing that “Coinbase has asked [Sonic] for $300m, $50m, $30m, and more recently $60m.”

In contrast to Coinbase’s high listing fees, both Justin Sun and Andre Cronje affirmed that their tokens were listed on the rival exchange, Binance, for free. At this time, neither Tron (TRX) nor Sonic (FTM) is available for trading on Coinbase, perhaps supporting the industry leaders’ recent assertions.

Are Decentralized Exchanges the Answer?

The latest social media exchange comes at a time when decentralized trading platforms such as Uniswap and Jupiter have grown in prominence. Their decentralized nature means tokens can be listed freely and are immediately accessible to anyone without a custodian.

However, the convenience of onramps and several other products only available in centralized exchanges means that their decentralized counterparts still trail in terms of adoption. Nonetheless, the gap between the old and new has been gradually closing and will continue as centralized exchanges increase the entry barrier for crypto projects.