Review contents
Coinbase is the most popular crypto exchange worldwide. It’s the ‘go-to’ place for beginners and advanced traders alike, thanks to it being easy to use, and being very trustworthy. The only downside is that the fees are on the higher side, but we think the trust and platform makes up for that.
Coinbase is by far the most popular crypto exchange in the world. It’s huge! By the way, a crypto exchange is where you can buy and sell crypto.
It’s available in over 100 countries, with over 85 million customers and over $100+ billion traded every 3 months, and looks after nearly $200 billion for customers. That’s impressive.
Coinbase is one of the most secure and safety-focused exchanges in the world. Ideal for those new to crypto (which can feel like the wild-west), and reassuring for those a bit more experienced looking for a safe place to trade, and hold their money and crypto safely.
And for those more experienced traders – Coinbase has an advanced exchange with tonnes of trading features to help you trade how you like, however that may be – it’s got pretty much everything you’d want. And, the fees are lower on the advanced exchange too (more on that later).
Coinbase can be used on their website, or your mobile, as an app, on both Apple and Android devices (rated 4.6 out of 5 on Apple, and 4.3 out of 5 on Google Play. These ratings are crazy high for a crypto platform.
If you’ve already decided Coinbase is for you (can you tell we're fans), here's where to get started with Coinbase¹ (you can also earn a bit of free bitcoin after you sign up).
If not, let’s dive into Coinbase and see if it’s right for you.
Note: cryptocurrencies are often called coins or tokens (similar to real coins), and we’ll be using those words here. They all mean the same thing.
Yep! Coinbase is great for beginners, in fact, it’s pretty much where every beginner starts when they first get into crypto.
Coinbase is designed to be as easy and simple as possible. You can get started in no time, and there’s no scary charts or graphs to navigate through (they’re on the more advanced platform, more on that later).
There’s tonnes of resources to learn about crypto and trading too, from the basics all the way to professional trading.
It’s pretty much the ‘go-to’ place for crypto. It’s easy to use and very trustworthy.
Advanced traders, Coinbase has got you covered too.
They have a separate section of the app for advanced traders, which has got all the great features that you’d expect, such as limit orders (where you set a price you want to buy at), and stop-loss orders (where you set a price that triggers your coins to be sold to minimise losses).
There’s also a history of all the previous trades for a certain coin and orderbook data, which shows you what other traders' orders are (the price and amount of coins they want to buy or sell).
It’s all linked to your original account so you don’t need to re-register or anything like that. In fact, we encourage everyone to learn about it and use it to buy their crypto as the fees are cheaper.
It’s pretty great, and of course all the data is in real-time (meaning it’s always up to date).
It’s super reliable, and very fast – large investment companies (like BlackRock) also use the platform, and lots of businesses also build their own software on top of it.
And fees? We’ll cover those a little bit later.
To learn more about all the different features, check out the Coinbase website¹.
The range of coins is great, there’s 100s, and new ones added all the time.
You’ll find all the major coins such as bitcoin and ethereum (ether), and a huge range of relatively unknown coins – you’ll get a description of each coin, how many coins there are, the total value of the project (it’s market cap), previous price history, and even the popularity of other traders.
Nuts About Money tip: if you’re new, stick to the popular coins. With a bit of experience, before you know it, you’ll learn how to keep up with new projects that look promising. It takes a bit of learning to understand what coins could be a good investment (and whatever you do, please don’t just copy social media influencers!).
In crypto, there’s something called ‘staking’, which is where you can earn interest or rewards on your crypto. Pretty cool right? On Coinbase, this is called Coinbase Earn.
It’s similar to putting your money in a savings account, and over time, you’ll get interest payments. Your crypto is typically used to protect, and keep the blockchain (technology) running on certain networks (such as Ethereum). Don't worry if this doesn't make sense, we're just geeking out.
Depending on which coin you stake, you might have to lock your crypto away for a period of time (similar to a fixed rate saver account, where you have to lock your savings away to get a better interest rate with your bank).
The actual interest rate you’ll get can change, so it’s best to check on the Coinbase website¹.
You can also create your own ‘wallet’, and link this to your Coinbase account. A wallet is a place to store your crypto and NFTs (non-fungible tokens, think like art on a blockchain), and keep them super safe under your control (meaning it's not stored with Coinbase).
This is different to your Coinbase account. It’s effectively your passport to the world of crypto outside of Coinbase. It gives you the ability to do cool things like mint new NFTs. There’s loads more options and things to do with a wallet, the possibilities are quite literally endless.
If you’re new to crypto, you can look at wallets once you’re more familiar, you don’t need this from day one. You’ll pick it up as you go.
You can also store unlimited tokens (coins) and NFTs, whether or not they are purchased on Coinbase.
Note: you’ll be responsible for looking after your private keys (which is effectively your password for your wallet), and Coinbase does not have access to your coins. It’s all in your hands.
Coinbase One is using Coinbase on a subscription model (so a monthly fee), rather than paying a fee for everything you buy and sell, which could work out much cheaper over time.
You’ll pay £19.99 per month, and your trading fees will reduce to zero. You might still pay a spread fee (which is a small fee within the actual price of a coin, and effectively the difference between how much you can buy a coin for, and how much you can immediately sell it for).
There is a limit however, which is £10,000 per month in trading volume, before fees to trade will apply again. Despite the limit, which is high enough for most people, it’s still a very good deal.
You’ll also get access to priority support, where you get much quicker responses to your customer support requests.
And, you’ll get access partner deals, where you’ll get free access or discount to a range of services in crypto (like tax planning tools, and data analytics platforms to help you trade better).
Note: Coinbase One doesn’t apply to the advanced exchange (so you’ll still pay the fees on the advanced exchange).
Coinbase also offers a physical card (like a debit card), where you can spend your crypto in shops around the world. It’s run on Visa, the global payments network.
You’ll simply spend in the local currency (e.g. Pounds (GBP) in the UK), and your crypto is converted into the local currency as you spend. All pretty cool.
There’s no transaction fees to spend, but there will be a spread fee included within the transaction from the local currency to crypto (these are fees within the transaction price. Expect around 0.50% fee).
Unfortunately trading crypto (buying and selling) is never free. Fees are commonplace on every exchange, whether it’s crypto or not – stocks, currencies, everything. It’s just part of how things are run. But, they don’t all charge the same fees. Let’s see what the fees are like for Coinbase.
Coinbase is on the higher end for fees, but for the simplicity and trust, we think it’s worth it. And, you can use the advanced exchange to get cheaper fees (more on that below).
Typically, you’ll pay 1.49% of the amount you want to buy (or sell) as a transaction fee.
You’ll then also pay what’s called a spread fee. Which is where they add a fee to the actual price of the coin you are buying, this is normally 0.5%, and hidden in the price of the coin, so it’s not immediately obvious (also all apps have this fee).
Warning: to buy with a debit or credit card you’ll be paying a crazy high transaction fee of 3.99%. It’s best to avoid this and use your bank account to transfer money into your account so you DON’T pay this fee.
Nuts About Money tip: if you think you will be buying and selling a lot, don't forget about Coinbase One, where you’ll get zero transaction fees for £19.99 per month (up to £10,000 in trading volume).
Once you are familiar with how everything works (or have used crypto exchanges before), you can use the advanced exchange, where you can expect to pay around 0.6% per transaction instead, but can be less depending on how much you trade.
This is the advanced trading platform, but every Coinbase user can use it, and the fees are a lot cheaper.
The fees are structured into tiers depending on how much you have traded in the last 30 days.
There's 2 types of fees depending on how you buy or sell your crypto. If you buy immediately at the current price, you will be charged a ‘taker’ fee (you are placing a market order).
If you set a price you’d like to buy at, so placing a ‘limit’ order, you’ll be charged a ‘maker’ fee. Which is typically slightly less than a taker fee as you are providing the exchange with orders (liquidity), for other traders to take.
Here’s the fees broken down by the amount of trading you do over the last 30 days (it’s all handled in US dollars ($), even if you’re in the UK, as most traders will trade in dollars).
Coinbase is super safe. They focus on safety and security. There’s a reason why individuals and businesses trust it with over $200 billion.
The majority of the customer's crypto is stored in ‘offline’ storage. Which means their crypto wallets are unable to be accessed by computers (so protection from hackers). They are also stored in facilities that are guarded and monitored 24/7. Think of it like a high security bank.
The rest of the crypto is stored on the exchange (online) and is insured, so if anything bad should happen, they’ll be able to recover the money and pay it back to customers.
In the UK, Coinbase is also authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). That means they’ve been reviewed and approved to offer crypto services to customers just like banks are – and are routinely checked.
Coinbase also undergoes regular audits (checks) by a range of external companies to ensure that customers’ money is safe and sound.
The customer service is good overall.
There’s a huge help centre that answers pretty much any question you might have about your account or crypto in general.
They’ve got a live-chat (where you chat to someone online), and you can send them an email too.
However, as there's a lot of customers (over 85 million), it can be difficult to get an immediate response, you may have to wait a little bit, depending on what help you need and how busy it is (it can be days for email replies).
With Coinbase One (the subscription fee option), you’ll get quicker support.
On the Apps stores, both Apple and Android, they have great ratings (4.6 on Apple, and 4.3 on Google Play). We’d agree with this rating, the apps are really great and easy to use.
On Trustpilot, the popular reviews website, they have a score of just 1.5 out of 5. That is pretty bad. However, a lot of the negative reviews are about verifying their identity and the fees rather than any particular issue with the Coinbase platform itself.
There are however lots of 5 star reviews praising the platform for its ease of use.
Lets run through the pros and cons of Coinbase:
We really like Coinbase and use it ourselves here at Nuts About Money. Crypto can be super confusing and intimidating to those new to the industry, and Coinbase makes everything super easy and super clear. It’s one of the best places to start your crypto journey.
In the crypto world, trust is very important, and Coinbase is by far the most trusted exchange out there. It’s very well established (one of the first), and a huge company overall.
The customer service is good, and there’s a lot of resources to learn from as you start your journey into the big world of crypto.
It also caters to advanced traders too, with the advanced exchange, which has some great trading tools and a great platform overall. Plus, it’s fast and reliable.
The main downside to Coinbase is that fees are on the higher side. But, if you’re buying coins and holding them for the long-term, it's not too bad. And you can use Coinbase One to reduce the fees.
Or, if you're trading regularly, use the advanced exchange for reduced fees.
Overall, we’re giving Coinbase a solid 5 stars. It’s not the cheapest out there, but we think the trustworthiness offsets that. It’s a safe, secure place to buy, sell and hold crypto. And, it’s easy to use, with a great app.
If you’re keen to get started, head over to the Coinbase website¹.
It’s pretty much the ‘go-to’ place for crypto. It’s easy to use and very trustworthy.
It’s pretty much the ‘go-to’ place for crypto. It’s easy to use and very trustworthy.
It’s pretty much the ‘go-to’ place for crypto. It’s easy to use and very trustworthy.
Edward Savage is a leading expert on money, with a background of 8 years working in financial services in London, has a business, accounting and finance degree, runs an investing community, and teaches people about money. He writes about all aspects of personal finance, including pensions, investing, mortgages and insurance.
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It’s pretty much the ‘go-to’ place for crypto. It’s easy to use and very trustworthy.
