According to reports, the iPhone manufacturer wanted a 30 percent cut of the blockchain transaction fees.

Coinbase claims that Apple coerced it into removing NFT transfers from its iOS Wallet app. It claimed on Twitter on Thursday that Apple "blocked our last app release until we disabled the feature" because the iPhone manufacturer wanted to receive a 30% cut of the blockchain fees associated with an NFT transfer through its in-app purchase system.

For a number of reasons, including the fact that Apple's system doesn't support crypto payments, Coinbase claims that it is impossible to make that happen.

While you can buy digital tokens on some NFT marketplaces using conventional fiat money like the US dollar, the fees Coinbase is referring to are something else entirely. Any transaction will be subject to a fee on blockchains like Ethereum, which many NFT projects use, and which goes to pay the individuals who validate it. ETH and other cryptocurrencies are used to pay the fees. Even if you send someone an NFT for no charge, that still holds true.

Notably, neither Coinbase nor the recipient of the NFT receive any portion of the gas fee. The cost varies constantly depending on a number of variables, including the value of the cryptocurrency and the volume of transactions being validated. To put it another way, Apple's in-app purchase system is not really designed to handle this kind of situation.

Despite this, it is not entirely surprising that Apple informed Coinbase that it could no longer use the NFT transfer method as it had been. The organization revised section 3.1.1 of its App Store review policies in October to expressly address NFTs, as follows:

Applications may employ in-app purchases to sell non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and services associated to them, such as minting, listing, and transferring. As long as NFT ownership does not unlock features or functionality within the app, apps may let users view their own NFTs. Users of apps may browse NFT collections owned by others, provided that no buttons, external links, or other calls to action are present that point users to alternative purchasing options to in-app purchases.

We contacted Apple for comment, but we didn't immediately hear back. The interpretation that Apple appears to have applied here would affect transfers where you're simply moving an NFT between your own wallets or sending it as a gift to friends and family, to use an example from Coinbase. (Side note: I would disown a friend or family member if they sent me an NFT for any reason.)

Though those discussions with Apple might be a little tense after its CEO tweeted that the App Store is a monopoly (the jury is actually still out on that) and that some of Coinbase's conversations with Apple have been "absurd," Coinbase says it hopes that this was all just an oversight and that it will be able to resolve things. Coinbase is already responding to user evaluations of its Wallet app and advising users to use the Coinbase Wallet Chrome extension, but if this is truly Apple's policy, it will be necessary to find a workaround.