Coinbase has gone far since its debut, which was over a decade ago. Worldwide, it has more than 56 milion users. It is one of the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world with exceptional trading volume, while having a good reputation for industry-leading security as well. Founded in 2012, they are based in the United States . We refer Coinbase to crypto exchange, and it certainly started as one, but over the years, it has expanded its offering to include more than just buying, selling, and trading crypto assets.
Regulations
First of all, Coinbase Ireland Limited is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland. Also, they work hard to reduce any security concerns. It’s based in the U.S. and they claim that it’s never been hacked. And most importantly the exchange keeps nearly 100% of its users’ digital assets in offline cold storage.
Coinbase products
You can trade Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, and Litecoin without having to first convert from your base currency into another cryptocurrency, SO
You can buy and sell popular digital currencies, invest in cryptocurrency, use a digital wallet, and USD Coin marketplace. They have one of the easiest and fastest buying processes.
A digital wallet is for storing your digital assets. With their Digital Wallet, you can keep all of your crypto on your own device.
Coinbase will allow you to borrow up to $100,000 in cash, using their Bitcoin assets as collateral, they don’t have any set repayment plan. You’re only required to pay off the interest due each month.
Demo account
Using a demo trading account means that you don’t need to worry about losing money, you can learn and gain skills before you go live with trading. It’s a good educational tool for beginners. Unfortunately, Coinbase does not support demo accounts, so if you want to learn by using a free or a demo account, Coinbase won’t be the right choice.
Registration
The registration button is easy to find. It’s in the top pane on the right. Called “Get Started”. Once I have clicked on the gets started button, I get to a form to fill in. They ask for your name, email and password. You click on “Create” and a GDPR note comes up, after that an article about privacy policy, consent for newsletters and after that you’ll receive a verification email. I received the email immediately.
Once I had verified my email, I had to type in my phone number to get a verification code. That comes in a second, you choose your citizenship, and then you fill in a form with identity questions. Your name, DOB, address and questions like: “What will you use Coinbase for? And this is where I have stopped. I am aware they have no demo account, but I still tried to register, and look at the platform, look at the account and how things work, before I fill in my personal details. The registration was easy, but very tedious.
Fees
The standard Coinbase platform you’ll pay a spread fee of 0.5% plus a transaction fee for each cryptocurrency buy/sell. Each purchase or sale of Digital Currency is subject to a fee. Each purchase or sale of Digital Currency is also subject to the Exchange Rate for the given transaction and you’ll also pay a variable fee if you use an instant buy payment method in place of using funds that have already been transferred from your bank.
This is explained in the Terms and Conditions of Coinbase. Beware that the fees can vary and change, there may be additional fees that are not mentioned in this review.
Coinbase website
The website design is very simple. Blue text, simple pictures and graphics. The website is very responsive and easy to navigate on, all the buttons work well. In the top pane you have the main menu:
- Price
- Learn
- Individuals
- Businesses
- Developers
- Company
The educational support is good. Once you click on Learn, choose if you want to see tips and tutorials, or Crypto Basics, or see market updates.
They don’t have live chat but a “Help Center”. And no contact details.
Coinbase platform
From what I have read, their platform is easy to use. Great for beginners and straightforward. And on the other hand, experienced traders may want to look for a platform that provides more charting tools and/or charges lower trade fees. They offer support for desktop and mobile, which means that Windows, MacOS, iOS and Android users too.
Social networks
They are active on Twitter; Facebook and they have their own blog. Looking at Facebook, they haven’t been active there for 3 months now. They post news and facts and they hold 377 thousand followers. Twitter is a bit more up to date with 3.9 million followers. That’s respectable.
They have blog articles about what Coinbase thinks about… or how to articles. They are all up to date, the last article is only a few days old.
Advantages and disadvantages of Coinbase
Coinbase is a decent crypto exchange platform and it’s easy to use. The web and platform. It also supports more currencies for U.S. residents than every other crypto exchange. They are also one of the first who have already made a crypto rewards card available to all its customers.
On the other hand, Coinbase fees are higher than other exchanges, they have no demo account, no live chat and I couldn’t find any contact details. On their website I looked for some more information about how the platform works, but no chance. The educational support is not bad, they have articles, but I’m missing more tutorials, YouTube videos and so on.
Pros:
- Easy to use
- Support more currencies for U.S. residents
- Good for beginners
- Strong security
Cons:
- Limited customer contact
- No tutorial videos
- Fees are quite high
- Compelling identity verification required
Score:
