Arguably the biggest and longest running complent I have seen from people over the years with Brave Browser boiled down to one simple thing. BAT rewards could only be received via a custodial account. The options that Brave had were underwhelming as well to say the least. For the longest time the only option for users was Uphold which I do not think I have ever met someone who had a good experience with that CEX. When they added the Gemini that gave numerous users a second option but to cover countries like India and Japan they had to partner with CEX's that were cleared to operate in those countries (zebpay and bitFlyer respectfully). 

When Gemini was first added in the first half of 2022 they were pretty popular as you could easily stake your payouts via Gemini Earn and the APY of this was quiet attractive considering the gas fees to do anything else with the BAT was insane. As we know now Gemini's partner for the lending service was Geneisus the now bankrupt and shut down subsidiary of Digital Currency Group (DCG). Since late 2022 those of us who had participated in the Earn program have had pending balances and it is to be determined what we end up getting back by the time the process plays out. 

Since the Gemini partnership fizzled out due to the Earn program ending the voices have been louder than ever for Brave to enable BAT payments to self custody wallets since a lot of the trust in these centralized companies is gone. To their credit Brave was active on their community forum discussing the issue that they were running into with this and it boiled down to regulators not giving this their blessing. With the custodial system regulators across the globe were okay with Brave issuing BAT and there was never any investigations or legal action taken again Brave or its development team which looking back is extremely surprising. 

Now though finally they either have some agreement worked out or they have just thrown caution to the wind as they have announced the beginning of the rollout of allowing users to change their payout wallet from one of these CEX to a self custody one! What I think is even better and I know some people will disagree but these BAT rewards will be paid out on the Solana blockchain. Brave's reason for this was rather straightforward in that even with L2's ETH based blockchains still tend to cost over $1.50 and that would be you would need to earn 6 BAT to even make a trade. On Solana with the cost being pennies you can utilize your BAT much easier! 

The initial roll out has started with the first people being onbaorded being though who have been with Brave the longest and that does make a lot of sense that those who have been around and stuck around benefit. They have not stated a expected rollout time frame but I figure it will be a couple of month if not more depending on the region someone is located in. This announcement is huge because of the weight it carries and what it enables for the BAT ecosystem. Typically a lot of BAT either just got stuck or was not used so it lacked actually circulating. With this announcement and especially Solana being used it rally could help create that circulation and flow of BAT throughout the ecosystem which should help improve its value! 

Please know I am not a financial advisor and make sure you do your own research! If you enjoyed this article and would like to support me further below are a few referral links that if you used when signing up I would appreciate it! Also, follow me on Twitter @Cje95_

Fold App

Offers daily wheel spins to win free sats daily! If you sign up for Fold with my link here you will get 20,000 sats for free!  

Robinhood

Robinhood is offering an excellent signup deal if you use my link here where we will both be awarded free stock. All that you have to do is sign up and connect your bank account for the award! With commission-free crypto trading and the ability to set limit orders, it is a great hybrid offering in my opinion! Not to forget the addition of wallets and the ability to send and receive crypto!

Unstoppable Domains

Sign up using my link here and get a free $10 credit towards your first $40+ purchase!