Coinbase is one of the most leading ambassadors of cryptocurrency exchange service.
The San Francisco, California based company has been one of the faces of the cryptocurrency community since it became mainstream. Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam jointly created this company back in 2012.
Although their initial target was to invade the US market, they are now operating in 31 countries. They also provide Bitcoin Storage service across 190 countries.
Trading Platform
Coinbase established a trading platform, GDAX (Global Digital Asset Exchange) in 2014. It supports a wide range of digital assets and real-time exchange of BTC and ETH for fiat currency. The GDAX service is available to High Volume trading professionals.
Verification
The Coinbase service requires four levels of verification.
The first three verification steps take a few minutes to be completed. In these steps, users need to verify their email address, phone number, residence address, bank details or credit card details.
The last verification step can take a few days to process, where the user needs to provide documents of identity, such as National ID or Taxpaying ID. As usual, with each level of verification, the weekly trading limit of the user increases.
Level 1 verified account has a weekly buy limit of $5,000 worth of BTC, which can increase up to $50,000 after complete verification. While Coinbase only supports bitcoin and Ethereum, it accepts a vast range of fiat currency, such as US dollar, Euro, British pound, Australian dollar etc.
Fees
Coinbase has a percentage fee system that applies on both deposit and withdrawal. Any Bank Transfer within US charges a 1.49% fee and takes up to 5–7 days to process.
There is also an option of adding credit card as a backup payment method.
Credit card transactions has a fixed charge of 3.99% and the transfer is processed instantly. There are no charges applied on cryptocurrency deposit and withdrawals.
Over the years, Coinbase has proven to be a suitable trading platform for BTC and ETH. Coinbase has a fixed charge of 1% over every trade. Trades are very fast due to the liquidity of the exchange. Coinbase has several trading tools, like order slip, variable time frames, and candle charts. It doesn’t support marginal trading and derivative trading.
Interface
Coinbase has a simple and suitable interface for clients. Excellent website speed allows for instant trading.
They have a market leading mobile exchange service with excellent Android and iOS apps. The mobile exchange service has all the features of the web-based service.
Mobile exchange service requires two-factor authentication and email verification to provide secure service for the customer. A user can distantly close the app in case the device gets lost or stolen.
Customer Support
the platform holds one of the best customer support services in the market.
The support team will reply Inquiries within 24 hours, with instant chat support for customers during business hours.
There is a vast community where users can post their questions about the exchange.
Pros and Cons
There are some controversies surrounding the exchange’s services. Several complaints can be found about how Coinbase track users’ bitcoin spending or abuse of the affiliate reward.
But in terms of security, Coinbase has a robust protocol. They store most of the coins in cold storage and keep back up.
Any kind of trading or account login requires two-factor authentication.
Conclusion: Buy Coinbase
Coinbase has the largest trading market in the cryptocurrency community.
It provides suitable banking options in the US. It offers fast and reliable trading option for the customers.
But issues regarding the invasion of customer privacy or supporting big-time investors have some sort of effect on their reputation. Overall, Coinbase is one of the best choices in terms of trading for any new customer.
