Coinbase; Alyssa Powell/Insider
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- Coinbase is a cryptocurrency exchange serving retail investors, businesses, and institutions.
- The app offers more than 50 crypto assets, including bitcoin, ethereum, dogecoin, and more.
- You’ll need at least $10 to get started, but but be prepared to sift through various fees.
- Click here to set up an account with Coinbase.
Is Coinbase right for you?
| You may like Coinbase if you… | You may not like Coinbase if you… |
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Launched three years after the creation of bitcoin in 2009, Coinbase is a cryptocurrency exchange that allows active traders to purchase, sell, or hold more than 50 virtual assets, including bitcoin, ethereum, the basic attention token (BAT), and others.
Coinbase also provides a range of investment options for businesses and institutions, including crypto storage, commerce services, and more. And in early June 2021, the exchange rolled out dogecoin access for Coinbase Pro users (it also plans to make dogecoin access available for its standard accounts and mobile apps; see more here).
The company also recently went public through a direct listing on the Nasdaq exchange.
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Coinbase |
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| Editor’s rating | 4.35 out of 5 |
| Fees | 0.50% spread for buy/sell transactions; transaction fee from $0.99 to $2.99; up to 0.50% for Coinbase Pro |
| Account minimum | $2 |
| Promotion | Get $5 of bitcoin when you join Coinbase (Buy or sell $100 in DOGE by 6/10/2021 for a chance to win up to $300,000 in DOGE) |
| Open account | |
Not sure if Coinbase is right for you? Keep reading to see how the investment app stacks up against other popular crypto exchanges.
How does Coinbase compare?
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Coinbase |
Kraken Exchange |
Binance.US |
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Min. Investment $2 |
Min. Investment Depends on type of cryptocurrency |
Min. Investment $10 |
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Fees 0.50% spread for buy/sell transactions; transaction fee from $0.99 to $2.99; up to 0.50% for Coinbase Pro |
Fees 0% – 0.26% |
Fees 0.1% spot trading fee; 0.5% instant buy/sell fee (4.5% fee for deposits with US debit card) |
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Investment choices Cryptocurrencies, tokens |
Investment choices Cryptocurrencies, tokens, futures |
Investment choices Cryptocurrencies |
| Open an account | Open an account | Open an account |
Ways to invest with Coinbase
Coinbase brokerage account
As long as you’ve got at least $2, you can trade more than 50 cryptocurrencies with Coinbase’s standard trading account. But even if you aren’t actively buying, selling, or using cryptocurrencies, you can take advantage of several other products, including its web and mobile interfaces.
Coinbase
The Coinbase Earn feature allows you to earn free crypto assets by learning about different cryptocurrency topics. Here’s how it works: You watch short educational videos (typically no longer than four minutes each) on different cryptocurrencies, but you’ll have to take a quiz after you complete each lesson. Coinbase will deposit crypto into your Coinbase storage wallet for each quiz you complete (see a full list of Coinbase Earn’s offerings here).
Coinbase also offers USD Coin (USDC), a cryptocurrency that’s backed by US dollars. The company also refers to these as stablecoins since – unlike regular volatile cryptocurrencies – you can always redeem one USD coin for one US dollar, according to Coinbase’s website. In fact, the app allows eligible USD Coin customers to receive rewards at an APY of 0.15%.
If you’re a US investor, you’ll need to keep the following fees in mind:
| Payment method | Coinbase fee |
| US bank account | 1.49% |
| Coinbase USD wallet | 1.49% |
| Debit card purchase | 3.99% |
| ACH transfer | Free |
| Wire transfer | $10 ($25 outgoing) |
| Credit transaction | 2% |
| Crypto conversion | 2% |
In addition, if you’re wondering about crypto custody and storage options, Coinbase provides its own online storage wallets. With the Coinbase Wallet app (this app is also separate from its iOS and Android mobile apps), you can manage your private keys and crypto assets online.
One thing to consider is that, while similar to many popular crypto and bitcoin wallets that give you non-custodial storage over your private keys, the Coinbase wallet also offers its own unique feature as well. The user-controlled wallet gives you a 12-word recovery phrase, or “seed,”that only users can access. This means that Coinbase won’t have to this secret code.
Coinbase Pro account
If you’re more of an advanced cryptocurrency trader, Coinbase’s Pro account could be a good fit for you. The account includes real-time order books, charting tools, and trading history. Coinbase also says its Websocket Feed gives you easy access to market data, while its trading API gives you the option to develop secure trading bots.
Coinbase Pro accounts also include FDIC insurance protection up to $250,000, and higher account balances result in lower trading fees. For instance, Coinbase Pro’s fee structure is comprised of taker fees and maker fees. If you’ve got an account balance below $10,000, you may have to pay a taker fee of 0.50%. You’ll only have to pay 0.04% if you hold more than $500 million.
Coinbase says taker fees are applied when you place an order at the market price that gets filled immediately. These fees range between 0.04% and 0.50%, depending on your account balance.
Maker fees, on the other hand, apply whenever you place orders that aren’t immediately matched with existing orders, according to Coinbase’s website. The platform says you’ll pay a maker fee if another investor places an order that matches yours. Maker fees range from 0% to 0.50%. You can find the complete fee schedule here.
One more important detail: Coinbase says you’ll pay a taker fee for the portion of any of your orders that are partially matched immediately. You’ll have to pay a maker fee once the remaining portion of the order matches with another order.
Institutional services
Coinbase also gives businesses and institutions a wide array of investment options. These include its Prime cryptocurrency trading platform, Asset Hub, commerce platform, storage options, and ventures services.
Asset Hub lets businesses and issuers list crypto assets across the Coinbase platform to gain growth and exposure. Coinbase’s commerce offerings help crypto-oriented businesses set up hosted checkout pages, invoices, payment buttons, and more.
The investment platform also offers secure cold storage (also known as offline storage) for institutions and businesses. And the ventures feature gives new companies a space to raise money for expansion.
Is Coinbase trustworthy?
Coinbase has received a D- rating with the Better Business Bureau.
The BBB considers several factors when evaluating companies. These include time in business (as well as type of business), customer complaint history, licensing, government actions, and more. While Coinbase’s rating is low, the bureau also says that its ratings don’t guarantee that a company will perform well or exhibit trustworthiness.
For this reason, it’s also important to do your own due diligence before making a final decision. The BBB says it assigned Coinbase a D- rating because the company failed to respond to more than 977 complaints.
Coinbase has closed more than 1,009 complaints in the last 12 months.
What is Coinbase?
Coinbase is a cryptocurrency exchange that lets you trade bitcoin (including bitcoin cash), ethereum, dogecoin, litecoin, and more than 50 other crypto assets. The platform also offers storage wallets for crypto assets, Coinbase Earn, Coinbase Pro, and cryptocurrency services for businesses and institutions.
Coinbase was founded in 2012 by Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam. Though it launched with the initial intention of giving all investors access to Bitcoin, the company has expanded its offerings to more than 100 countries and more than 50 cryptocurrencies.
Coinbase says it serves roughly 56 million verified users, 7,000 instituions, and 115,00 ecosystem partners across the world.
Rickie Houston is a wealth-building reporter at Personal Finance Insider who covers investing, brokerage, and wealth-building products.
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