Coinbase exchange: World’s Most Popular Crypto Exchange Guide

When one says "cryptocurrency," there are many associations that appear — Bitcoin, Binance, blockchain, and many others. In the U.S. and Europe, Coinbase is definitely on this association list.

What is Coinbase

Some people think that Coinbase is a cryptocurrency exchange, but this is not quite true. After all, the company registered specifically as an online cryptocurrency broker, not a regular exchange. But let's omit this nuance and continue to call it an exchange for easier perception. Coinbase exchange today offers services in any direction related to cryptocurrency. It is the exchange that has the name Coinbase PRO.On the official website (coinbase.com), you can see all the products, which are more than a dozen.

Coinbase broker has been especially widespread in the U.S., where it is required to obtain special permits to trade virtual tokens. Today more than 45 million people are registered on the platform.

History and background

The company was founded in 2012 in San Francisco. Initially, it offered the easiest option to buy a cryptocurrency, and supported all the most popular payment methods in the United States. Today, the company serves customers all over the world. The developers were Brian Armstrong, Fred Ersamom, and Ben Reeves. It was they who were looking for investors for the full implementation of the project.Before creating Coinbase, Brian worked at Airbnb (a service for placing and searching for properties for short-term rent around the world). He was highly dissatisfied with the fact that when you send $100 to Uruguay, you do not know exactly how much money the other party will receive.

At that time Armstrong came across a manifesto by Satoshi Nakamoto (creator of the first and most popular cryptocurrency, Bitcoin). Having familiarized himself with the principle of work, Armstrong believed in the idea and began to make his way in this direction in every possible way. The result was the creation of Coinbase. Today Coinbase offers its services entirely legally in the European Union and 49 U.S. states. The broker is fully supervised by the relevant authorities. This is what makes the site one of the most reliable online.

Coinbase overview

At the moment Coinbase is considered to be the largest centralized cryptocurrency exchange in the United States. Globally, it ranks second, ahead of only the giant of the modern cryptocurrency market — Binance. Here you can easily trade a large number of cryptocurrencies. Assets are stored in a special wallet from Coinbase. Modern cryptocurrency exchanges are considered one of the most conservative because they follow all the requirements of the law, whatever they are.

Key features

One of the key features of the CIS market is the presence of restrictions on a number of countries. The company provides services for the purchase and sale of cryptocurrency is not in all countries of the world. But it is possible to use Coinbase wallet to store and transfer cryptocurrency.

Otherwise, Coinbase shows itself as one of the market leaders. It has all the necessary tools to interact with cryptocurrency. This allowed the company to create a full-fledged ecosystem. You will not need to use third-party services to buy, transfer or store cryptocurrency.

Coinbase: Explained

Well, to get to know the exchange better, you should take a closer look at each of its aspects. As such, it is worth highlighting several features that have been introduced to the Coinbase platform.

Coinbase software

For trading on Coinbase, standard solutions are used to provide a complete set of tools. This makes it extremely easy to interact with the system, as every feature is already familiar to avid traders.

Cryptocurrency wallets

Coinbase Wallet has become the main tool for storing and transferring tokens. It supports all popular ETH Layer-2 networks and blockchains. The wallet can both store and trade cryptocurrency. If this feature is not available to you, however, use the "Convert" tool.It has fairly high security, with ERC-20 tokens represented in its majority. With Coinbase Wallet you can connect to decentralized exchanges and marketplaces with NFT.

The next tool is a full-fledged client, which can be downloaded to both your computer and your smartphone. The seed phrases and other high-level security tools are present in the full set. The only unpleasant nuance will be the format of the client support — through Twitter. It is an interesting solution, but not really practical for our market, although for the U.S. it is suitable as well as possible.

Types of accounts

Exchanges that allow both personal and business accounts are still a rarity today. This is the hole that Coinbase closes because any entrepreneur can use the platform, and this makes it one of the best crypto apps. This makes it possible to separate personal and business assets, make it easier to track income and expenses, and so on.

Coinbase Earn

With the Coinbase Earn section, cryptocurrency is not only a convenient means to store funds in it. It is also possible to multiply your savings. All you have to do is deposit your funds — one U.S. dollar is enough — and you can start earning. You don't have to do anything, just choose the cryptocurrency you want to use and then read the terms and conditions. Next to it, you will see the APY — the annual percentage yield.

Coinbase Wallet

A fairly standard wallet that includes all the necessary tools to make it convenient to use — trading, conversion, staking, and so on.

It will require a seed phrase to regain access to your account, so your savings will be secure.

Coinbase Pro

The Coinbase Pro exchange is suitable for customers who are willing to get serious about trading cryptocurrency in order to make money from it. We can say that it is almost entirely a new product, which is very different from the standard version. While regular Coinbase in most cases will not cause any questions, an unprepared client will not be able to cope with Coinbase Pro. It should be noted that the advanced version of the exchange has a user-friendly interface and is quite easy to understand. Part of the funds will be insured against theft.

Advantages and disadvantages

It is on the advantages and disadvantages that you should choose the exchange you will use on a regular basis. Therefore, it is necessary to summarize all the features and options of Coinbase.

Pros	Cons
Permits and licenses to operate in over 100 countries	Trading is not available in a number of countries
Ranked first among all cryptocurrency exchanges in the U.S.	In Coinbase Pro, the number of available crypto pairs will differ depending on your region
More than 10 years in the crypto market	Tight restrictions and limits, which depend on the status of the user in the Coinbase system
Support for experienced investors from Europe and the United States is provided	Difficulty in obtaining technical support
High liquidity	No margin trading and leverage
Availability of a full-fledged own cryptocurrency wallet	A limited list of available payment methods in fiat currencies
A business account option is available
API WebSocket
Available to issue your own cryptocurrency debit card to pay for purchases in offline stores
Ability to obtain individual limits
Token messenger for communication and fast transfer of cryptocurrency to other users
High-quality software

Table 1. Coinbase: pros and cons

Who is the Coinbase for?

Coinbase has a fairly strict list of countries that get access to token trading. The whole reason is that Coinbase follows all the advice, laws, and wishes of American regulators and authorities of other countries. If you live in a country where operations are approved by Coinbase, it can become a full-fledged alternative to Binance.

Is Coinbase suitable for beginners?

If you're on a first-name basis with cryptocurrency, Coinbase is also suitable for you. After all, it offers everything you need. You can easily buy and sell, as well as exchange crypto in a couple of clicks without going into details and nuances of the deal. Well, to prevent unnecessary features from disturbing and confusing the beginner, all such tools were hidden in the Coinbase Pro version.

How about advanced traders?

The Coinbase cryptocurrency exchange is also suitable for professionals who earn from cryptocurrency trading. All you need to do is to go to the Pro section. Then you will be opened to a full list of tools, which are used for trading. For advanced traders, there is an API function, which allows you to automate trading on the exchange.

Cryptocurrencies available on Coinbase

Coinbase has a total of 552 trading pairs with 238 cryptocurrencies available. The most popular tokens are Bitcoin, Ethereum, and USDT. The total value of all transactions carried out daily is approaching $2 billion (for 2023). The most popular cryptocurrencies available on the Coinbase exchange include:

Available crypto
For trading	For deposit	For withdrawal
BTC/USD	Bitcoin	Bitcoin
ETH/USD	Ethereum	Ethereum
USDT/USD	USD Tether	USD Tether
DOGE/USD	Dogecoin	Dogecoin
SOL/USD	Solana	Solana
AVAX/USD	Litecoin	Litecoin
MATIC/USD	Avalanche	Avalanche
ADA/USD	Tron	Tron
LTC/USD	Ripple	Ripple
SHIB/USD	Polygon	Polygon

Table 2. Crypto coins available on Coinbase

Coinbase: best features

It is worth noting that the Coinbase exchange has some undeniable qualities that can be considered the most important. It is because of their presence that users choose the platform, rather than corruptors, of which there are plenty today.

Wide choice of cryptocurrencies

One can't say that Coinbase presents all the tokens that exist at all. But here you can find an opportunity to buy or exchange almost any token that has proven to be strong, secure, and in demand. You won't find “shit coins” here.

Easy and advanced trading options

If you're not a fastidious user who just wants to buy cryptocurrency, you'll be fine with the simplified interface. But also if you're already a hardened crypto-enthusiast or experienced trader, you'll be comfortable too. But you will need to upgrade to the Coinbase Pro version.

Earn free crypto

Coinbase has a very interesting feature — here you can not only trade but also earn money without any investment. To do that, you need to start learning. The solution has several educational materials from partners — for studying them a gift of a few tokens is provided.

Educational Content

Even if you are absolutely zero experienced in matters of cryptocurrency, it is the educational section from Coinbase that can help you understand all the tricks — what is NFT, crypto slang, how to set up your crypto wallet, what is Uniswap, how to earn on tokens, and much more.

Mobile App

There are two mobile apps: Coinbase Wallet and Coinbase Pro. The first suits those for whom the most classic tools are enough — storage, occasional buying and selling of coins, and so on. If you want to become one of the traders, you will already need to download the Pro version. The app is released on both Android and iOS. You can download the Coinbase app on the official Play Market or AppStore.

Cryptocurrency rewards

To get funds you need to watch a video and pass a small survey. All materials and rewards are provided by third-party companies who are interested in promoting their own products.If you pass the test successfully, you will be rewarded with tokens. But you need to hurry because this is a temporary promotion. As soon as the payout fund runs out, the opportunity will disappear.

Coinbase debit card

Any customer of the exchange will be able to order a physical debit card on the official website. It can be used to pay for purchases in any offline stores. The cryptocurrency will be converted from the exchange rate, and after that, the service or product will be paid for.

Coinbase does not charge any additional fees and commissions to its customers. And if you use the card frequently, you stand a good chance of getting popular cryptocurrencies for completing tasks from Coinbase.

Things to improve

Although Coinbase is a leader in the U.S. market, it has not become a perfect exchange yet. To do so, it will need to fix some problems.

Complicated payment schedule

It is difficult for inexperienced users to understand exactly how much they have to pay in commissions. It is this complicated structure of their charging process that needs to be fine-tuned.

High commissions for simple trades and bets

If your trading turnover does not vary in millions of USD, you will have to pay huge commissions on ordinary transactions. Transaction amounts of less than 10 USD will require you to pay fixed or variable commissions.

Limited reward options

Despite the fact that such a section is available in your Coinbase account, it is almost never upgraded. It is extremely rare to find anything new on the rewards pages. And this could be an additional incentive to grow Coinbase's customer base.

Registration process

To register, just go to the website, enter your personal information, and confirm your registration by following the link from the email sent to your address.

After that, get verified to be able to buy and sell crypto. Verification is not required to store tokens.

Customer service

Coinbase is not doing well with this item. The limited number of opportunities to ask for support makes it the main problem of the exchange. Extremely lacking is Live chat on the site and in the app to solve non-standard problems.

Customer satisfaction

For the most part, Coinbase customers are satisfied with what they are offered. At least, it is quite difficult to find a legitimate cryptocurrency exchange in the US market.

Account Management

The Coinbase platform provides a fairly wide range of options for customization and account management. After coinbase.com login through a personal account, you can:

• activate two-factor protection;
• add payment method;
• go through verification;
• update personal data;
• create an address book.

Fees and commissions

The first fee a customer encounters is the deposit fee. Also, when you want to withdraw money to your external wallets, you will also have to pay a certain percentage as a fee. Below, you can find all types of commissions Coinbase charge from its users.

Commissions and fees
Operation	Fee amount or %
Credit/debit card	3.99%
Wire Transfer (deposit)	10 USD
Wire Transfer (withdrawal)	25 USD
ACH Transfer	0%
US Bank account	1.49
Bank transfer UK (deposit)	0%
Bank transfer UK (withdrawal)	1 GBP
Bank transfer SEPA (deposit)	0%
Bank transfer SEPA (withdrawal)	0.15 EUR

Table 3. Coinbase fees

Trading fees
Amount USD	Taker fee, %	Maker fee, %
Less than 100K	0.25	0.15
100K – 1M	0.20	0.10
1M – 10M	0.18	0.08
10M – 50 M	0.15	0.05
50M – 100M	0.10	0.00
100M – 300M	0.08	0.00
300M – 500M	0.07	0.00
500M – 1B	0.06	0.00
from 1B	0.05	0.00

Table 4. Coinbase tading fees

Is your crypto safe with Coinbase?

Coinbase is an online service – it is this feature that makes it partially vulnerable. It will in any case be inferior to cold wallets, which are almost impossible to access if you do not own this device.But the developers of the Coinbase wallet and platform themselves are confident that they can provide a sufficient level of protection. The access keys that are on your device are not on the Coinbase server. The website and apps do everything to protect their customers as much as possible.

Is Coinbase legit?

Coinbase is one of the few crypto exchanges that follows all legal requirements. If a company has not been authorized to provide brokerage activities in a certain country, services will not be provided to its residents.

Coinbase Wallet app

Coinbase Wallet is the main app through which users access their savings. What's interesting is that this cryptocurrency app is available for residents of any country. Even if you are in a jurisdiction that is not available for the purchase and sale of tokens, it does not become an obstacle for the storage of funds and their conversion within the site. When you log into your account, you generate a unique seed phrase that will prevent third parties from accessing your funds.

Customer support

A support section has been created for simple questions. It allows you to get support for only certain regions: the UK, the US, Australia, Brazil, Germany, India, and China. Enter the essence of your problem, and then you will be provided with relevant answers. But it is not always possible to find information this way. You can also get help by emailing support.coinbase.com or calling Coinbase’s phone number. Customers can get support from all over the world.

Payment Methods

The easiest way is to transfer your cryptocurrency into your account. To do this, just open Coinbase Wallet, then open the token you are interested in and copy the address to enter funds to the site. Open the wallet where you want to transfer money and enter the received address from Coinbase Wallet.It is also possible to deposit on your Coinbase account with fiat currency. To do this, you need to link a bank card (both debit and credit cards are available), and then transfer funds to the account. The transaction will be considered a transfer to the broker because Coinbase is registered in this form. For customers from Europe, there is an opportunity to buy a cryptocurrency for USD by SEPA bank transfers. But for US users the number of available payment methods are significantly higher: bank account, ACH Transfer, and Wise Transfer.

Coinbase compared to other crypto exchanges

In the table below, you’ll find am information on Coinbase in comparison with other popular cryptocurrency exchanges.

	Coinbase	Binance	KuCoin
Trading pairs available	552	1395	1244
Crypto coins available	238	354	720
P2P trading	No	Yes	Yes
Futures trading	No	Yes	Yes
NFT trading	Yes	Yes	Yes
Fees	Less than 0.6%	Less than 0.1%
Daily trading volume on the spot market (Jan. 2023)	$1,915,652,450	$17,695,535,897	$738,085,911

Table 5. Comparison: Coinbase vs Binance and KuCoin

Countries of presence

Coinbase currently works and is legit in more than 100 countries. For the current list visit the official website.

Conclusion

Access from the USA	Payment methods		Contacts
	Deposit	Withdrawal
Yes	Bank transfers, Apple Pay, Google Pay, wire transfers, SEPA	Bank transfers, Apple Pay, Google Pay, wire transfers, SEPA	https://www.coinbase.com/

 

Company information
Criteria	Information
Headquarters country	The USA
Foundation year	2012
Exchange type	Centralized
Trading is allowed	Yes

Frequently Asked Questions

• What is advanced trading on Coinbase?

With an advanced trading option, traders can take advantage of up to a 3x margin and manage their investments faster by taking advantage of a range number of tools like limit orders, stop orders, and order book features. Users are able to adjust leverages as well as monitor assets more efficiently and capitalize on trends quickly as they develop.

• What rewards can users get on Coinbase?

With Coinbase Earn, users are able to watch educational videos and take quizzes to become more familiar with crypto. Upon successful completion, they can be rewarded in tokens. Users will also get rewards each time they use their Visa debit card associated with their account.

• Does Coinbase offer a reward card?

Yes.

• Is it possible to trade NFT on Coinbase?

Yes.

• How do you trade derivatives on Coinbase?

Coinbase provides users with access to contracts for difference (CFDs) on hundreds of cryptocurrencies and commodities such as gold, silver, oil, and cryptos like Ethereum and Bitcoin, providing traders with a versatile range of opportunities to earn profits from movements in their chosen market.