[Thread] Coinbase says Apple “blocked our last” Wallet iOS app release until the exchange disabled sending NFTs, claiming Apple wanted a 30% cut from gas fees
You might have noticed you can't send NFTs on Coinbase Wallet iOS anymore. This is because Apple blocked our last app release until we disabled the feature. 🧵 Tweets: @coinbasewallet , @film_girl , @deitaone , @loopifyyy , @benjitaylor , @kgeorgee , @gakonst , @adamscochran , @219_eth , @xamanap , @panzer , @punk6529 , @realsidhujag , @jasonyanowitz , @cryptowendyo , @stockmktnewz , @brian_armstrong , @functi0nzer0 , @coinbasewallet , @coinbasewallet , @coinbasewallet , @coinbasewallet , @cobie , and @lopp Tweets: @coinbasewallet : Apple's claim is that the gas fees required to send NFTs need to be paid through their In-App Purchase system, so that they can collect 30% of the gas fee. @film_girl : This is obscene and should be illegal. Charging a 30% tax on purchases that don't leverage the App Store in any way is absurd. https://twitter.com/... @deitaone : COINBASE WALLET - APPLE'S CLAIM IS THAT GAS FEES REQUIRED TO SEND NFTS NEED TO BE PAID THROUGH IN-APP SYSTEM, SO APPLE CAN COLLECT 30% OF GAS FEE @loopifyyy : Apple blocked the latest Coinbase wallet update because they wanted “30% of the gas fees” that is used to transfer NFTs. Which is impossible. Benji Taylor / @benjitaylor : If this is true, this one of the dumbest things I've ever heard, and I say that as an Apple fan. https://twitter.com/... @kgeorgee : THIS IS HILARIOUS apple needs to take the 30% from Amazon app and all other apps for shopping too then yeah? Oh wait... @TimSweeneyEpic was right to challenge them before. Apple are crooks in white shirts https://twitter.com/... Georgios Konstantopoulos / @gakonst : note that any gas fee denominated rent is effectively selling blockspace, sounds like a valuable biz to be in https://twitter.com/... Adam Cochran / @adamscochran : Lmfao what? Apple, that is not how this works... It's not even technologically possible. How can a company that is so focused on getting every experience and tech advancement polished, repeatedly have horrible takes on blockchain? https://twitter.com/... @219_eth : why are you still supporting a collaborator like @apple? https://twitter.com/... @xamanap : Apple charging 30% of gas fees be like https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/... @panzer : Now that's funny https://twitter.com/... @punk6529 : JFC. If Congress wants to do something useful about tech power, prying open the app stores would actually be useful https://twitter.com/... Jagdeep Sidhu / @realsidhujag : Time to cancel apple? https://twitter.com/... @jasonyanowitz : Apple is going to force us all to buy the Solana phone https://twitter.com/... @cryptowendyo : We need our own decentralized phone and Dapps It's only going to get worse with Apple and G00gle https://twitter.com/... @stockmktnewz : COINBASE: TALKS WITH APPLE MONTHLY ABOUT ‘APP STORE MONOPOLY’ $COIN $AAPL Brian Armstrong / @brian_armstrong : Good example of the kinds of discussions we have with Apple on a monthly basis, to deal with their app store monopoly. It's gotten pretty absurd at times. https://twitter.com/... Laurence / @functi0nzer0 : Tim Apple what are you doing lmfao https://twitter.com/... @coinbasewallet : For anyone who understands how NFTs and blockchains work, this is clearly not possible. Apple's proprietary In-App Purchase system does not support crypto so we couldn't comply even if we tried. @coinbasewallet : Simply put, Apple has introduced new policies to protect their profits at the expense of consumer investment in NFTs and developer innovation across the crypto ecosystem. @coinbasewallet : This is akin to Apple trying to take a cut of fees for every email that gets sent over open Internet protocols. @coinbasewallet : 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. @cobie : Sorry what lmao https://twitter.com/... Jameson Lopp / @lopp : Smells like desperation. How much of Apple's revenue is based upon their middleman cut of payments? https://t.co/DM0hrsjVWU
Context & Ripple Effects
This thread is the sharpest public account yet of how far Apple's App Store commission enforcement reaches: Coinbase says Apple held back its Wallet iOS release until the exchange disabled NFT sending entirely, because Apple wanted gas fees routed through In-App Purchase at a 30% cut. The catch is structural — Coinbase states Apple's own purchase system cannot process crypto, so compliance was technically impossible without killing the feature.
The dispute lands on well-trodden ground. Coverage going back to the OneZero examination of App Store restrictions and Apple's hiring of economists to defend its commissions frames this as a long-running antitrust flashpoint, and the Patreon episode shows the same playbook applied to creator memberships.
First-order effects
- iOS users of Coinbase Wallet immediately lose the ability to send NFTs from their phones, and Coinbase had to ship an update with the feature stripped out to get through Apple's review.
- Apple gains a new category under its 30% umbrella: blockchain transaction fees, which Coinbase argues cannot legally or technically flow through In-App Purchase.
Second-order effects
- Every crypto wallet and dapp browser shipping on iOS now faces the same binary — disable transfers or lose distribution — pushing those developers toward web-based workarounds outside the App Store.
- The Patreon precedent suggests Apple will keep extending the 30% fee to adjacent transaction types rather than retreat, forcing each affected developer into a one-off negotiation or compliance scramble.
Third-order effects
- If regulators treat gas-fee skimming as evidence that the commission applies to value Apple neither hosts nor processes, it strengthens the case for legislative or legal limits on gatekeeper leverage over app distribution.
- Crypto-native companies may structurally deprioritize native iOS experiences, concentrating mobile functionality on Android and the web and eroding iOS as a default platform for financial software.
The trend: Apple is steadily widening its 30% take from app purchases to any digital transaction flowing through iOS — memberships, ads inventory, and now blockchain gas fees — testing how much friction developers and regulators will absorb.