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Coinbase is the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States and the one most people have heard of. It is publicly traded, licensed in every state, and built so that a first purchase takes minutes. Our verdict: the smoothest starting point for a nervous beginner, provided you learn to avoid its expensive simple-buy pricing.
| Founded | 2012 |
|---|---|
| Based in | United States (remote-first, no official headquarters; SEC filing address in New York) |
| Coins | 360+ crypto assets, plus US stocks, ETFs and prediction markets |
| Fees | Simple buys include a spread plus a Coinbase fee that depends on payment method and size (shown at checkout); Advanced Trade has no spread and volume-tiered maker/taker fees; Coinbase One from $4.99/month waives trading fees |
| Custody | Custodial; withdraw to your own wallet any time; optional Coinbase Vault with a 48-hour delay; separate self-custody Coinbase Wallet app |
| Best for | Beginners in the US or Canada who want the simplest, most regulated on-ramp and will use Advanced Trade or keep purchases small |
Compare Coinbase side by side with other exchanges
What it is
Coinbase was founded in 2012 by Brian Armstrong, who is still its CEO. It began in San Francisco, declared itself a remote-first company with no headquarters in 2021, and reincorporated in Texas in December 2025. It listed on the Nasdaq in April 2021 under the ticker COIN and joined the S&P 500 in May 2025.
The company offers more than 360 cryptocurrencies, and since 2026 it also sells US stocks and ETFs and runs prediction markets, all inside the same app. As on Kraken, there are two ways to trade: the simple buy screen and Advanced Trade, a full order-book interface for lower fees.
Coinbase is a custodial service, meaning it holds the private keys, the secret codes that control your bitcoin, on your behalf. It also publishes a separate app, Coinbase Wallet, where you hold your own keys.
Fees
Simple buys
Coinbase’s public fee page, as of 2026, no longer prints a flat fee table for simple buys. Instead it says the price you see includes a spread (a markup over the market price) plus a “Coinbase fee” that depends on your payment method, order size and location, revealed only on the checkout screen. The page mentions a Coinbase fee of up to 1.875% depending on payment method, and a 1% execution fee on simple limit orders.
Qualitatively: bank (ACH) funding is the low-cost route, and debit-card buys cost noticeably more. Always read the fee line before you confirm.
Advanced Trade
Advanced Trade adds no spread. It charges a maker fee (for orders that wait on the book) and a taker fee (for orders that fill instantly), tiered by your 30-day volume. Coinbase advertises maker fees “as low as 0.0%” but shows the full tier table only after you sign in, so we cannot quote the entry tier here. It is well under 1% and far cheaper than a simple buy.
Coinbase One and withdrawals
Coinbase One is a subscription that waives trading fees: Basic is $4.99 a month for up to $500 of zero-fee trades, Preferred $29.99 for up to $10,000. The fine print says the spread still applies. Moving bitcoin to your own wallet costs Coinbase’s estimate of the network fee for a normal on-chain send, or 0.2% over Lightning. Transfers to another Coinbase user are free.
Buying bitcoin step by step
- Sign up with your email (or Google or Apple) and confirm you are 18 or older.
- Verify your identity with a government ID and your address. This is required by US law.
- Turn on two-factor authentication in Settings, preferably with an authenticator app or security key rather than SMS.
- Link a bank account and deposit dollars by ACH. Card and PayPal work too but cost more.
- Open Advanced Trade, choose BTC-USD, and place a market or limit order. If you use the simple Buy button instead, read the fee and spread on the preview screen first.
- Send the bitcoin to your own wallet: tap Send, paste your wallet’s address, and confirm. Or, if you plan to keep it on Coinbase, put it in a Vault, which adds a 48-hour delay and a second approver to any withdrawal.
Security and trust
Regulation
Coinbase has held a New York BitLicense since January 2017, the toughest state licence in the country, plus money-transmitter licences elsewhere. It received a European MiCA licence in Luxembourg in 2025, and in April 2026 the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency gave preliminary conditional approval for a Coinbase national trust bank.
The SEC sued Coinbase in June 2023, claiming it operated as an unregistered exchange. The SEC dropped the case with prejudice in February 2025, with no penalty.
The 2025 breach
In May 2025 Coinbase disclosed that criminals had bribed overseas customer-support contractors to copy account data: names, addresses, ID photos and partial bank details for about 69,000 customers, under 1% of users. No passwords, keys or funds were taken directly, but the data was used for scam calls. Coinbase refused a $20 million ransom, offered the same amount as a bounty, and told investors the cleanup and reimbursements could cost $180 million to $400 million.
Reserves
Coinbase does not publish a proof of reserves for the exchange. As a public company its balance sheet is audited by Deloitte and filed with the SEC every quarter, which is a different but serious form of accountability. Customer assets held on the platform were reported at $246 billion as of June 30, 2026.
Pros and cons
Pros
- Public company with audited financials, a New York BitLicense and availability in all 50 states.
- The most polished beginner experience, with bank, card and PayPal funding.
- Easy exit to self-custody: withdraw any time, or use the free Coinbase Wallet app.
Cons
- Simple-buy pricing is opaque and expensive: a spread plus a fee you only see at checkout.
- The May 2025 insider data breach showed that customer data was reachable by outsourced staff.
- No proof of reserves, and constant nudges toward hundreds of other coins, stocks and subscriptions.
Who it’s for
Coinbase is for the reader who wants the familiar brand, lives anywhere in the US including New York, and values a clean app over the last fraction of a percent. Use Advanced Trade and ACH funding and the cost is reasonable. Buy with a debit card on the simple screen and you will pay some of the highest fees in this guide.
Bitcoin-only savers may prefer River or Swan, which are built around recurring buys and automatic withdrawal. This is education, not financial or tax advice.
Next
- How to buy bitcoin: the full beginner walkthrough.
- Compare all the exchanges.
- Coinbase vs Kraken: the two big exchanges, head to head.
- Wallets and self-custody: what to do after you buy.