Coinbase

This review is based on my use of Coinbase. I have been a Coinbase user since 2016.

What is Coinbase?

Coinbase is a cryptocurrency exchange based in the USA.

It lets you buy, sell, and store crypto.

Is Coinbase Safe?

Unlike other exchanges–Mt Gox & Bitfinex being some prime examples–Coinbase has never lost customer funds in any way.

Coinbase is trusted by more than 98 million users across the globe and has been around since 2012.

Is Coinbase Legit?

Because of how famous Coinbase is, many wonder if Coinbase is a safe place to buy, sell, and store crypto.

Coinbase is legit:

It's a publicly traded company on the NASDAQ under the ticker COIN⁽¹⁾.

Its stock price can be checked on all major finance sites:

The company stores more than $96 billion USD on its platform and has over 4,000 employees. It's headquartered in San Francisco.

How to Buy Bitcoin on Coinbase

To give you a feel for Coinbase's flow, here's a quick demo of me buying $10 worth of Bitcoin on Coinbase:

Fees Charged by Coinbase for Bank Transactions⁽²⁾

Transaction Amount	Coinbase Fee
$10 or less	$0.99
More than $10, and less than or equal to $25	$1.49
More than $25, and less than or equal to $50	$1.99
More than $50, and less than or equal to $200	$2.99

Here is my real life test of the fees for trying to buy $100 worth of Bitcoin on Coinbase:

Details for $100 Test Purchase	Coinbase
Quoted BTC Price	$101,616.19
Fee	$3.74
Fee %	3.74%
BTC Amount	0.00094729

The real price at the time was around $100,550 so Coinbase was quoting me a much higher price than the actual price. This means I will get less Bitcoin for my money.

Coinbase Advanced Fees vs Other Exchanges

Coinbase Simple has very high fees, but Coinbase Advanced Trader is much cheaper.

However, still, Kraken and Gemini Active Trader are cheaper.

Coinbase Advanced (formerly Coinbase Pro) does have much more liquidity than Kraken and Gemini Active Trader, so that's another factor to consider.

We built this fee calculator to help you visualize the fees of popular Coinbase alternatives:

Coinbase Fees by Payment Method

Payment Method	Fee
US bank account	1.49%
Coinbase USD wallet	1.49%
Debit card	3.99%
Instant card withdrawal	Up to 1.50% of any transaction, with a $0.55 minimum fee

Coinbase Wallet

Coinbase Wallet is a crypto wallet developed by Coinbase.

You do not need a Coinbase account to use the Coinbase wallet.

Coinbase wallet lets you store Bitcoin, Ethereum, NFTs, and other digital assets – all for free.

Supported Countries

Coinbase offers its brokerage services in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Singapore.

Coinbase also supports the following European countries:

Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Gibraltar, Greece, Guernsey, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Isle of Man, Italy, Jersey, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and United Kingdom.

In North America, Coinbase supports Canada, the USA, and Mexico.

In South America, Coinbase only supports customers in Chile via debit card payment.

Coinbase Limits

Coinbase offers very high limits.

Limits depend on your account level, which is determined by how much information you have verified. Fully verified U.S. customers may buy up to $50,000 worth of bitcoin daily.

European customers may have a maximum of 30,000 euros in their account at any time.

Is Coinbase Going Bankrupt?

Out of nowhere, many speculated that Coinbase may be having bankruptcy issues.

However, its founder came out and said the company was not at risk for bankruptcy⁽³⁾.

Coinbase Card

Coinbase offers a Visa debit card that is backed by your Coinbase account.

This means you can store your money in crypto, but spend at any store that accepts Visa cards. Additionally, you can get cash back in bitcoin, ETH, and many other coins.

The Coinbase Card is available to all residents in the USA besides Hawaii.

What is Coinbase Pro?

Coinbase Pro is now called Coinbase Advanced Trader.

Buying Bitcoin for the first time can be confusing – that's why Coinbase was created. It's a simple platform, designed for ease of use and simplicity. Most people will use Coinbase when they buy for the first time. Unfortunately, they charge a fee for that convenience.

Coinbase charges 1.49% on all transactions made with a bank account, and 3.99% for debit/credit cards – these expenses will add up quickly, especially if you are trading often.

Coinbase Advanced, formerly known as Coinbase Pro, is one of the most popular cryptocurrency exchange platforms.

Coinbase Pro offers much lower fees than Coinbase Simple.

Drawbacks and Cons

The main drawback and con of Coinbase is that its fees are slightly high⁽²⁾.

Other exchanges may be harder to use but have lower fees. Coinbase is charging a high fee for its trusted platform and ease of use.

Coinbase Earn

Coinbase offers staking on coins, meaning you can hold coins with Coinbase and earn money.

Reasons someone may want to stake:

• Earn extra money on crypto instead of just having it sit there
• Compound earnings

Staking, however, comes with risks:

• If Coinbase gets hacked, you could lose your money

Coinbase offers dozens of coins for staking, the most popular of which being:

• Ethereum (3.26%)
• USDC (4.6%)

Security History

Coinbase has never been hacked.

Why does this matter?

Many exchanges have a history of being hacked, which means if you have coins on the exchange you could lose your money.

Coinbase claims to offer several security measures, including:

• Holding all customer assets 1:1: Meaning, that if Coinbase has 1 BTC for you, they hold the coin and don't lend it out.
• Custom funds in cold storage: Coinbase claims to hold customer funds in cold storage, meaning your coins are stored offline.
• Machine learning: The company monitors unique transactions and pauses them if they look out of the ordinary.
• Two-factor authentication: Coinbase forces its users to use 2-factor authentication. This means before you log in, you'll need to generate a unique code. This adds extra security to your account.

Coinbase Alternatives

River Financial is a good alternative to Coinbase. It offers a similar experience with lower fees and is very easy to use.

Kraken is another good alternative if you're looking for somewhere that's trusted with cheaper fees.

Real User Reviews

We analyzed user feedback from various review platforms including app stores, Trustpilot, Capterra, and the Better Business Bureau (BBB). Here are some notable reviews:

From Trustpilot:

"Been using coinbase forever and in my opinion it has the easiest and most straightforward interface to interact with in crypto. I love complex things simplified, and that's coinbase for me."

"Never had an issue with Coinbase, had a technical issue on my account and they helped me massively. Would recommend Coinbase to anyone."

From Capterra:

"It was the first Crypto Platform I ever used... Through their educational content with incentives I familiarized myself with ICOs, Airdrops and trading. The friendly user experience helped me understand better crypto when I first got into it years ago."

From Android Play Store:

"I'll be uninstalling and removing my account as soon as it let's me move my money. Every single opportunity I've had was taken because the app lags whenever I go to make any purchases... creating price alerts is a joke. Good luck finding the option without a blueprint."

From BBB:

"It has been over 2 months that my account has been restricted for no reason by Coinbase... Coinbase customer support is very unorganized and unprofessional I must say and they can't continue to toy with people's lives and fortune just the way they want."

Common themes from user reviews:

Positives:

• User-friendly interface for beginners
• Fast trading execution
• Reliable and secure wallet
• Good educational resources
• Same-day payouts available

Negatives:

• Poor customer support experiences
• High fees compared to other platforms
• App performance issues and lag
• Limited cryptocurrency selection
• Strict security measures can be frustrating (IP restrictions)
• Account restriction issues

As noted by Nerdwallet: "Most important information, including investment minimums, supported assets and how to close the account, can be easily found on the website, but fees are difficult to find and understand."

Coinbase USDC Rewards

One of Coinbase's most popular features is its USDC rewards program. This program allows you to earn rewards on your USDC holdings.

We built this calculator to help you calculate how much you can earn in USDC rewards by holding USDC on Coinbase.

The current reward rate is 4.35% APY. Rewards are distributed monthly and require a minimum balance of $1 USDC.

Affiliate Program

Lastly, Coinbase has an affiliate program where you can earn by referring friends to the platform.

How Much Can You Buy on Coinbase?

That's going to depend on your account limits. Here's a quick video we made showing how to check your account limits:

Coinbase has weekly and daily limits, and also limits depending on payment method.

How to Wire Money to Coinbase

Here's a quick video we made showing how to wire money to Coinbase, to help make it easier to understand: