Coinbase reported that Apple is blocking the latest update to its digital wallet on iOS until the crypto exchange distributes 30% of gas fees from NFT sales or disables the ability to send them.
Coinbase claims that Apple wants gas fees to be paid through a system that takes a 30% cut of all in-app purchases for apps on Apple devices. Here’s what the company wrote about it on Twitter:
“Apple’s proprietary In-App Purchase system does not support crypto, so we couldn’t comply even if we tried.” And in another tweet from the account read: “The biggest impact from this policy change is on iPhone users that own NFTs – if you hold an NFT in a wallet on an iPhone, Apple just made it a lot harder to transfer that NFT to other wallets, or gift it to friends or family.”
In September, Apple began allowing apps on its App Store to sell NFTs, as long as it still took a 30% cut of each purchase. The leaders of other big tech companies, including Mark Zuckerberg of Meta, Elon Musk of Twitter, and Spotify CEO Daniel Ek also criticised Apple for its tight grip on apps.