Today in Crypto: Coinbase Commerce Launches Instant, Free Payments to Merchants; Compass Mining Names Interim Leadership After CEO, CFO Resign

Anchorage Digital, an institutional crypto custody firm, will be introducing ether staking for institutions, the company announced Tuesday (June 28).

The crypto bank will offer ETH holders a way to earn rewards for helping to secure the Ethereum blockchain as it moves to a proof-of-stake (PoS) model later in the year.

This comes as there’s been confirmation that “the merge,” or the upgrade that will shift the blockchain to PoS from a proof-of-work mechanism, will be done possibly within the next few months — adding a faster, more energy-efficient component to doing things.

Meanwhile, Coinbase is updating its Commerce platform, allowing Coinbase users to instantly make payments to Commerce merchants and adding seven cryptocurrencies that can be used for Commerce payments.

According to a company blog post Tuesday, this will help further the company’s goal of bringing consumers and businesses together in the crypto economy, making transactions “easier and more accessible.”

Coinbase said it wants to make products “that enable crypto as a new financial system.”

In other news, Argentina’s customs office has seized 2,233 crypto mining rigs, which it said were improperly invoiced at around $5 million more than their actual value, CoinDesk reported Tuesday.

A complaint said the machines were valued for importation purposes at $10,000 each — though they were only really worth around $6,000 to $7,000.

This seizure came as there was a shortage of foreign reserves on the balance sheet of the Argentine Central Bank. That helped lead to a tightening of import controls from the government, per the report.

Furthermore, Cypherpunk, which works in investments for blockchain, the metaverse and other things, announced Tuesday that it is upgrading its services with new modulations for the current climate.

Chief Information Officer Moe Adham said the company has transitioned its treasury to cash, which will prepare the company to work with investment opportunities that might be available after a “substantial recapitalization of certain projects.”

Cypherpunk also said its treasury doesn’t have any bitcoin or ether.

Finally, Compass Mining said it has accepted a resignation from CEO Whit Gibbs and CFO Jodie Fisher, according to a Tuesday press release.

The board has appointed Chief Technology Officer Paul Gosker and Chief Mining Officer Thomas Heller as interim co-presidents and CEOs. The company also said it wants to correct “multiple setbacks and disappointments” from its original goals of making mining easy and accessible.

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