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Coinbase Review Contents

• Overview
• Services offered
• Payment and payout methods
• Fees
• Currencies supported
• Countries available
• Security
• Support

Overview

Coinbase was founded in 2012 by Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam, and it’s one of largest and oldest cryptocurrency exchange in the US. It is licensed in numerous US jurisdictions. On April 2021 debuted on Nasdaq under the COIN ticker. Coinbase Pro, one of Coinbase services, is usually one of the top ranked platforms in terms of traffic, liquidity and trading volumes. Apart from being a digital currency broker, Coinbase also offers custodial services for DC storage for institutions, a cryptocurrency payments platform for businesses and its own cryptocurrency, USD Coin (USDC), a stablecoin linked to the US dollar. Because of its popularity and reputations, people are looking for Coinbase reviews. Read the rest of our review to learn more.

Services offered

Coinbase – offers a brokerage service for purchasing and selling digital currencies. Thanks to the company’s size and reputation, the platform is often chosen by new traders. Coinbase allows the transfer of cryptos from one account to another and the conversion from one cryptocurrency into another.

Coinbase Pro (Former GDAX) – is an advanced trading platform for individual traders and crypto enthusiasts. It is usually ranked as one of the top exchanges on CoinMarketCap in terms of traffic, liquidity and trading volumes. Platform is more friendly for experienced users, offers lower fees than standard Coinbase brokerage service and provides many advanced trading options. Interestingly, when a Coinbase user requests a transaction, the order is executed on a Coinbase Pro.

Coinbase Wallet – is an application for both iOS and Android. Decentralized app enables users to see all of the cryptocurrencies in a single place. It allows to send the tokens directly to a friend using just their Coinbase Wallet username. Coinbase Wallet provides multi-coin support, managing BTC, BCH, ETH, ETC, LTC, and all of ERC-20 backed cryptos.

Coinbase Commerce – allows integrations for cryptocurrency payments for businesses.

Coinbase Prime – is a solution for institutions and high net worth customers.

Coinbase Custody – is a secure, regularly audited cold storage of digital assets.

Coinbase Ventures – is an initiative connected to Coinbase that invests in companies that aim at creating an open financial system, providing financial support to start-ups.

Payment and payout methods

Coinbase offers different payment methods that are suggested to be used for different types of transactions:

• Credit or debit cards (for buy and sell transactions);
• PayPal (in most countries used for withdrawals only, in Canada – used for sells);
• ACH (Automated Clearing House) in the United States, recommended for small and large investments;
• SEPA transfer (for transfers in euro within 36 countries, 27 of which are members of the European Union, all being members of the Single Euro Payments Area). SEPA transfers take up to 7 calendar days to be processed. It is suggested for large amount transactions, euro transactions and withdrawals;
• Instant card withdrawal – a method for withdrawing money (for card review – which are supported depending on the region – check Coinbase website).

Payment availability differs by region – in our Coinbase review we encourage you to check the website for specific regions – European Union, UK, USA, Canada, Singapore and Australia.

There are some transactional limits applied to users accounts – depending on the account verification level, payment methods – it usually is up to $25000 per day.

Fees

Coinbase fees differ on the type of transaction and on the customer’s location and payment method. Additional costs may occur when making transfers from and to the customer’s bank account. Coinbase establishes the exchange rate for transactions by applying a margin or a spread to the market exchange rate on the Coinbase Pro platform. There is also a separate transaction fee – either a flat rate or a variable percentage of the transaction.

What a customer needs to pay is:

• A market price of a cryptocurrency on the Coinbase Pro (exchange platform) + 0.5% of the price (spread);
• Coinbase fee:
  • a flat fee (applicable for transactions of up to $200) – the flat rate is from $0.99 (for transactions of the value up to $10), to $2.99 (for transactions of the value between $50 up to $200);
  • or a variable percentage fee (applicable for transactions higher than $200) that depends on the region and payment method – in most cases, 1.49% for standard transactions and 3.99% for credit/debit card transactions;
• For cryptocurrencies conversions there is a spread margin up to 2% of the transaction value;
• For a transfer between Coinbase accounts – there is no fee.

The fee structure seems to be quite complex for both transational and withdrawal fee – that is one of the biggest complaints Coinbase customers have. For more details – visit the website.

Currencies supported

Coinbase supports different cryptocurrencies (the options of buying/selling might be different for some countries). In its portfolio, a user might find the most popular tokens and many more. Those include:

Some currencies offered are subject to different trading options – some of the cryptos are available for sending only, some for sending and receiving, etc. and the service might differ by country.

Countries available

Coinbase offers its services in +100 countries around the world. However, the scope of services available differs from country to country.

• In the Americas, there are 26 countries supported – also with differences in the scope of service.
• In Europe, there are 40 countries supported – in most of which there is buy, sell and conversion service available.
• In Asia, there are 20 countries supported for the cryptocurrencies conversion. In addition to this service, in Singapore there is also a possibility to buy bitcoins and other cryptos.
• In Africa, Coinbase offers only the conversion service in 13 countries.

However, even if buys and sells are not yet available in a country, one can still take advantage of many Coinbase features such as:

• Sending and receiving funds
• ​Storing the funds securely with two-factor authentication.

Security

Coinbase declares to be devoted to customers’ security. Here are some examples of security measures applied that we covered in our Coinbase review, for the full list please refer here.

• More than 90% of the digital assets are stored offline in a decentralized manner to reduce the risk of theft and systems fail.
• Digital assets stored online are insured.
• Web communication is TLS (former SSL) encrypted, and WAF and DDoS protected.
• Two-factor authentication (2FA) – for better authentication of the users, done by TOTP through an external app, SMS text, or a voice call.
• Wallets and private keys are encrypted with AES-256 algorithm.
• Bug bounty program – financial motivation for ethical hackers.

Support

Coinbase provides its users with a big knowledge base – you can find information that are missing in our Coinbase review on the broker website and in the FAQ section. This source of information covers most of the common questions. However, if a user needs more extended assistance, Coinbase offers customer support via ticketing system and a hotline – for disabling the account in case it has been compromised.