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Coinbase Review

Last Updated: Nov 3, 2022  |  Published: Apr 11, 2022


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Coinbase

About Coinbase

Coinbase is considered one of the easiest and safest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world. The San Francisco based company was founded in 2012 and is available in 100+ countries serving 100M+ clients!

Their goal is to make crypto trustworthy and easy to use. When you visit Coinbase, You'll notice it's very beginner-friendly and has a beautiful user interface. They offer a variety of features like beginner trading, advanced trading, staking, learn and earn, a Dapp browser, and more.

Background

  • Publicly traded company since 2021 (NASDAQ: COIN)
  • Available in 100+ countries
  • 100+ million verified users
  • $250+ billion assets on the platform
  • 3700+ employees

Our Review 

Coinbase offers 170+ coins, industry-leading security, beginner and advanced trading and is supported in 100+ countries. Although it's one of the most well-known crypto exchanges and has lots of features, it's also one of the most expensive platforms in the industry.

Overall, we don't recommend Coinbase for buying crypto with fiat or trading crypto because of it's high fees and spreads (see alternatives). However, if you don't mind high fees it is the easiest platform for beginners to get started. Other features we would recommend are the Coinbase Wallet and the Learn and Earn section to receive free crypto.

Where It Shines:

  • Beginner Friendly: Many platforms are easy to use but Coinbase is one of the best. Great user interface with simple design and navigation
  • Good Reputation & Safety: Founded in 2012, 89+ million users, $255m insurance coverage, tons of security features, publicly traded, and more
  • Lots of Features: 170+ coins, staking, beginner & advanced trading, and much more
  • Earn Free Crypto: The Learn and Earn feature pays you to $1-$12 to watch videos about different crypto projects. Payments are instantly credited into your account
  • Zero Fees for $30/month: Coinbase One is a new subscription product in the US that will waive all trading fees. Read our Coinbase One review here

Where It Falls Short:

  • One Of The Most Expensive Platforms: Coinbase is known to have high spreads and trading fees
  • Confusing Fee Structure: Coinbase seems less transparent than before. They took down their fees breakdown from their website and it's hard to find a lot of information

Overview

Coins Offered

170+

Trading Fee (varies)

Source: A verified Canadian Coinbase account

$0.99 fee for $10

$1.49 fee for $10-$26

$1.99 fee for $27-$54

$2.99 fee for $54-$78

3.84% fee for $79-$7,500

Fiat Wallets

3 (USD, EUR, GBP)

BTC Withdrawal Fee

Dynamic (network fees)

Notable Features

Great U/X, beginner & advanced features, lots of features overall, one of the biggest exchanges in the world, great reputation

Supported Countries

Platform & Features

Overall, Coinbase is one of the top cryptocurrency exchanges when it comes to total number of features offered.

List of Features:

  • iOS, Android and Web app
  • 170+ Cryptocurrencies
  • Instant Buy & Sells (beginners)
  • Advanced Trading
  • Recurring Buys
  • Coinbase Pro
  • Staking & Yield
  • Learn & Earn
  • Coinbase Vault
  • Coinbase Borrow
  • Coinbase Card
  • Coinbase Wallet
  • USD Coin (USDC Stablecoin)
  • And More

1. iOS, Android and Web App

Coinbase Mobile App

Coinbase is accessible on all of your devices and they offer multiple apps (Coinbase, Wallet, Pro). It's incredibly easy to use, no matter your experience.

2. Trading Interface

Coinbase Dashboard

Coinbase offers beginner and advanced trading features. Here are the following ways to trade, buy and sell:

  • Instant Buy and Sells - Beginner-friendly market orders 
  • Recurring Buys - Set up automatic orders to buy crypto daily, weekly, monthly based on the settings you provide
  • Convert - Quickly swap crypto to crypto
  • Advanced Trade - Toggle this on for an advanced trading interface
  • Coinbase Pro - Separate platform for with limit orders, technical charts and more

3. Instant Buy & Sell

  • Set custom price alerts and watchlists

4 Recurring Buys

5. Advanced Trade

6. Coinbase Pro

Coinbase Pro Dashboard

More advanced traders looking for lower fees and spreads can use Coinbase Pro. It's a separate platform however, you can still login with the same Coinbase username and password. Transferring funds between your Coinbase accounts are free and instant.

Coinbase Pro has limit orders, market orders, a live order book, advanced charts and more. The downside is Pro does not support all fiat currencies. Right, now you can only deposit and withdraw crypto, USD, EUR or GBP.

7. Staking & Yield

8. Learn & Earn

Coinbase Earn and Learn

The Learn and Earn crypto section lets you get paid to learn about specific cryptocurrencies. All you need to do is watch a few 1-3 minute videos and answer a few questions to get paid anywhere from $1-$15. When you complete the quiz, the funds will automatically deposit into your account where you can instantly trade it, withdraw it or hold onto it.

9. Coinbase Vault

Coinbase Vault is built to store your long term holdings more securely. You can transfer your crypto into your Vault wallet and then it will have extra security features such as time-delayed withdrawals and multiple approvers for joint account withdrawals.

10. Coinbase Borrow

11. Coinbase Card

12. Coinbase Wallet

  • Separate non-custodial app with DeFi and more

13. USD Coin (USDC Stablecoin)

14. News & Education

Coinbase Crypto News and Education

Find tons of educational resources on beginner and advanced crypto topics. You can also read up on the latest crypto news right from your dashboard.

13. Other Coinbase Features

  • Affiliate Program - Invite friends and you both earn around $10 USD
  • Coinbase Pay - Send crypto for free to friends via text message or email
  • NFT marketplace
  • Coinbase Ventures - Find other crypto products and services that Coinbase has invested in
  • Buy Bounty Program - get paid $200-$50,000 to find security risks
  • Coinbase Exchange (institutional)
  • Light mode/dark mode
  • Send A Gift

Fees & Spread

Coinbase has vey confusing fees and is not transparent in this section. They took down the detailed fee structure from their website and it's difficult to know their exact fees until you place an order.

What we do know, is Coinbase is one of the most expensive platforms. They have a dynamic trading fee structure, so the total trading fee depends on how much you are trading. On the CAD account we tested, fees go as high as 3.84% or $0.99 to $2.99 per trade.

To compare, this is 38x more expensive than Binance, which has 0.10% trading fees!

Price Test & Spread

Price Test (Coming Soon)

Prices

Total BTC Purchase Fee

Coming Soon

Total BTC Selling Fee

Coming Soon

Trading Fee

(Source: A verified CAD Coinbase account)

$0.99 fee for $10

$1.49 fee for $10-$26

$1.99 fee for $27-$54

$2.99 fee for $54-$78

3.84% fee for $79-$7,500

BTC Spread

Coming Soon

BTC Buy Price

$00,000

BTC Sell Price

$00,000

Ref. Price Difference

Buy:

Sell:

Reference Price (Google)

$00,000

More Information

We tested 20 cryptocurrency exchanges at the same time to compare the true fees. This data was collected on Mar 2, 2022 at 4:41pm and is subject to change since spreads and prices change daily.

  • *Total BTC Purchase Fee = Trading Fee + Buy Reference Price Difference
  • *Total BTC Selling Fee = Trading Fee + Sell Reference Price Difference

Keep in mind, there could be additional fees for depositing/withdrawing fiat. Check fees for your local fiat currency if it is supported on this exchange.

You can compare all platforms tested on this page

Deposit & Withdrawals

Instant buy and sells are available in 40+ countries but fiat wallets are only available for USD, GBP and EUR. 

Overall, Coinbase is not a good platform for funding and withdrawing fiat. Fiat to crypto trading is only available in supported countries. If it is available in your region, the fees are very high ($0.99 to 3.84% per trade) relative to other platforms. Other regions only have access to crypto to crypto trading.

Fiat Currencies

Fiat Wallets

(Deposit/Withdrawals supported)

USD

GBP

EUR

See more info

Credit/Debit Card

(fees for buying or selling. Source: A CAD Coinbase account)

$0.99 fee for $10 purchase

$1.49 fee for $10-$26

$1.99 fee for $27-$54

$2.99 fee for $54-$78

3.84% fee for $79-$7,500

P2P Exchange

No

Crypto Withdrawal Fees

Type

Fee

Minimum Withdrawal

Bitcoin

Dynamic (network fees)

?

Ethereum

Dynamic (network fees)

?

USDT

Dynamic (network fees)

?

XLM

Dynamic (network fees)

?

Security

Can You Trust Coinbase?

Security and reputation is one Coinbase's best features. Coinbase is one of the safest cryptocurrency exchanges in the entire world. They were founded in 2012, store crypto in cold storage, have a $255M insurance policy, and more. They're also a publicly traded company on the NASDAQ which means regular audits, public financials, and an added layer of safety.

Hacks & Incidents

We were able to find one hack in Coinbase's history since being founded in 2012. In 2021, 6,000 Coinbase customers lost their cryptocurrency to hackers due to an SMS vulnerability. Coinbase worked with the customers to regain control of their accounts and reimburse them for funds lost. 

Company Security Features

  • 98% of crypto assets are held in offline cold storage
  • $255 million insurance policy on the 2% of crypto held in online hot wallets
  • Publicly traded company (COIN) which means regular financial audits and an added layer of safety
  • Sensitive data is stored on paper backups and USB drives in vaults and multiple locations
  • Coinbase claims all personal information is encrypted
  • KYC required (must prove identity to sign up)
  • Employees must pass a criminal background check
  • Bug bounty program - they pay white-hat hackers to find security bugs and vulnerabilities
  • See their security page for more

User Security Features

  • 2FA for logins (via phone number, security key or authenticator app)
  • 2FA for withdrawing crypto
  • Crypto address whitelisting
  • Coinbase Vault - Store your crypto here for time-delayed withdrawals, multiple approvers and offline storage
  • Lock Your Account Button - Freeze all transactions if you see something suspicious
  • Set up Pin or Touch ID for app login, sending transfers and more
  • Security notifications via email, SMS and push (eg. Your password has been reset)
  • Account activity notifications (eg. buys, sells, transfers, etc)
  • View account login history (logins, locations, devices, IP addresses, etc)
  • Coinbase offers an emergency phone number to lock your account
  • Button to request your data to be deleted
  • View website status in real-time

⚠️ Although Coinbase is safe, over 50% of platforms we tested have had hacks or incidents in the past. We strongly recommend storing and protecting your crypto on a non-custodial wallet where you own the private keys. Preferably, a reputable hardware wallet like the Ledger Nano X.


Customer Support

You can contact Coinbase support via live chat and it says "an agent should reply within 10 minutes." They also offer email support, phone support and a knowledge base with helpful FAQs, articles and walkthroughs. There is also a live website status where you can check for incidents or maintenance in real-time.

Clients in the USA can get a 24/7 phone support if they pay for the Coinbase One subscription which costs $30/month.

Coinbase Customer Support

Compare

Compare the world's largest and most popular cryptocurrency exchanges:

Name

Coins

Standard Trading Fee

Supported Countries

Fiat Wallets?

BTC Withdrawal Fee

Website

240+

0.10%

190+

No

0.0005 BTC

Binance

Binance 🏆(#1 overall)

600+

0.10%

100+

Yes

0.0005 BTC

150+

0.20%

?

Yes

0.0004 BTC

750+

0.25%

180+

No

0.0005 BTC

50+

0.50%

?

Yes

0.0005 BTC

300+

0.75%

100+

Yes

0.0003 BTC

140+

0.10%

180+

No

0.0005 BTC

170+

3.99%

100+

Yes

Dynamic

110+

0.60%

100+

Yes

Dynamic

30+

0.10%

150+

Yes

0.15%

250+

0.40%

90+

Yes

0.0006 BTC

40+

0%

50+

Yes

0.50%

1400+

0.195%

190+

No

0.001 BTC

60+

1.49%+

60+

Yes

0.001 BTC

60+

0%

100+

Yes

0.0005 BTC

500+

0.20%

130+

Yes

0.0005 BTC

190+

0.26%

190+

Yes

0.00002 BTC

Kucoin Exchange

KuCoin 🏆

700+

0.10%

190+

No

0.0005 BTC

1500+

0%

190+

No

0.0003 BTC

OKX

OKX 🏆

350+

0.10%

100+

No

0.0002 BTC*

300+

0.155%

100+

No

0.0005 BTC

130+

0%

180+

Yes

0.0003 BTC + $2.99

Best Alternatives

Here are the best crypto exchanges around the world that are supported in many countries. We assessed 21 platforms across 40+ variables and 950+ data points.  

Binance
  • 600+ cryptocurrencies
  • Lowest spreads and fees in the industry
  • Most features in the industry
  • Not beginner friendly
Kucoin
  • Low spreads and fees if you fund your account with crypto
  • 700+ cryptocurrencies
  • Trade anonymously (all you need is an email right now)
  • Not beginner friendly
Crypto.com
  • Best crypto credit cards
  • Earn interest on 40+ coins
  • Lots of fiat currencies supported
  • High fees & spreads
  • User interface
Coinbase
  • Best reputation, publicly traded company
  • Best for beginners
  • Beginner + Advanced trading
  • Very high fees overall
Kraken
  • Great reputation (10+ years)
  • Professional trading tools
  • High volume 
  • Limited features
RankFinance

Find the best crypto exchange with our comparison tool

Coinbase

Coinbase

Get $10 free when you trade $100