Approximately over 73 million verified users, 185,000 ecosystem partners, and 10,000 institutions in over 100 countries trust Coinbase to easily and securely invest, spend, save, earn and use crypto. But before you start you have to know and be aware of a couple of things. In this article, you will learn what is Coinbase, the process, prerequisites and requisites to open a Coinbase account, and vital matters as the security of the platform, the trading fees, or how it’s the trading experience.
What is Coinbase?
Coinbase is an app, very similar to stock trading apps, that allows you to buy and sell all types of cryptocurrencies, some of those cryptos are bitcoin, litecoin, or Cardano. The app has a lot of functionalities, for example, the app lets you convert one cryptocurrency into another, has dedicated space to teach its users about cryptocurrencies, and offers staking options on specific cryptocurrencies. Users can send and receive cryptocurrency from other people.
It's important to differentiate the Coinbase app from the Coinbase wallet. The Coinbase app allows the users to trade, learn, earn, is a much more complete service than one offered by the Coinbase wallet. Also, it's important to point that the requisites are different, for example, the level of verification and as a consequence the level of security, being higher in the Coinbase app.
To sum up, we can say that Coinbase is very similar to other stock trading apps, this platform is used by a vast majority, 73 million, that rely their money on the platform.
How do I open a Coinbase account?
First of all, there is a list of prerequisites that you must fulfill, like the following:
- Be at least 18 years old (they will ask for proof)
- A government-issued photo ID (Coinbase doesn’t accept passport cards)
- A computer or smartphone connected to the internet
- A phone number connected to your smartphone (Coinbase will send SMS text messages)
- The latest version of your browser (we recommend Chrome), or the latest Coinbase App version. If you’re using the Coinbase app, make sure your phone’s operating system is up-to-date.
With all this said, you need to go to Coinbase, you can do this from your browser on your computer, or download and open the Coinbase app on Android or iOS. - Click Get started
- You will be asked for personal information, the one mentioned in the requisites. The legal full name, email address, password (the one you will use for Coinbase), and your city.
- You must read and accept the User Agreement and Privacy Policy.
- Click “Create account” or tap “Sign up” (mobile)
- Coinbase will send you a verification email to your registered email address,
- Then starts the verification process, you must verify your email address and your phone number.
- Enter your information shown on your valid government-issued photo ID (first name, last name, date of birth, and address) - then you will need to submit a photo of this ID.
- You’ll also need to answer the following questions:
- What do you use Coinbase for?
- What is your source of funds?
- Current Occupation
- Employer
- Last 4 digits of the SSN
- Select continue to finish the process.
To buy and sell supported crypto, and send and receive through Coinbase.com, you’ll need to next verify your identity and add a bank account. After you sign in to your Coinbase account you have to complete the ID verification. I strongly recommend you set up a 2-step verification app (TOTP) to help protect against unauthorized account access. To end the process, you will need to link a payment method.
Is it secure?
Coinbase uses security practices, industry-leading, to keep the user money and assets safe. There is always a risk when it comes to the internet, so I recommend following the online best practices to keep the account information safe.
On the other hand, we have the human factor, the reality is that the majority of stolen accounts were stolen because of the human factor, things like following a link from an email that seems to be from Coinbase and entering your credentials is a good example of how accounts are stolen. The fact is that is much harder to hack or trespass the Coinbase security than hacking the human factor, through phishing. That’s why I highly recommend reading the following Coinbase articles:
Approximately over 73 million verified users, 185,000 ecosystem partners, and 10,000 institutions in over 100 countries trust Coinbase to easily and securely invest, spend, save, earn and use crypto. But before you start you have to know and be aware of a couple of things. In this article, you will learn what is Coinbase, the process, prerequisites and requisites to open a Coinbase account, and vital matters as the security of the platform, the trading fees, or how it’s the trading experience.
What is Coinbase?
Coinbase is an app, very similar to stock trading apps, that allows you to buy and sell all types of cryptocurrencies, some of those cryptos are bitcoin, litecoin, or Cardano. The app has a lot of functionalities, for example, the app lets you convert one cryptocurrency into another, has dedicated space to teach its users about cryptocurrencies, and offers staking options on specific cryptocurrencies. Users can send and receive cryptocurrency from other people.
It's important to differentiate the Coinbase app from the Coinbase wallet. The Coinbase app allows the users to trade, learn, earn, is a much more complete service than one offered by the Coinbase wallet. Also, it's important to point that the requisites are different, for example, the level of verification and as a consequence the level of security, being higher in the Coinbase app.
To sum up, we can say that Coinbase is very similar to other stock trading apps, this platform is used by a vast majority, 73 million, that rely their money on the platform.
How do I open a Coinbase account?
First of all, there is a list of prerequisites that you must fulfill, like the following:
- Be at least 18 years old (they will ask for proof)
- A government-issued photo ID (Coinbase doesn’t accept passport cards)
- A computer or smartphone connected to the internet
- A phone number connected to your smartphone (Coinbase will send SMS text messages)
- The latest version of your browser (we recommend Chrome), or the latest Coinbase App version. If you’re using the Coinbase app, make sure your phone’s operating system is up-to-date.
- Click Get started
- You will be asked for personal information, the one mentioned in the requisites. The legal full name, email address, password (the one you will use for Coinbase), and your city.
- You must read and accept the User Agreement and Privacy Policy.
- Click “Create account” or tap “Sign up” (mobile)
- Coinbase will send you a verification email to your registered email address,
- Then starts the verification process, you must verify your email address and your phone number.
- Enter your information shown on your valid government-issued photo ID (first name, last name, date of birth, and address) - then you will need to submit a photo of this ID.
- You’ll also need to answer the following questions:
- What do you use Coinbase for?
- What is your source of funds?
- Current Occupation
- Employer
- Last 4 digits of the SSN
- Select continue to finish the process.
Is it secure?
Coinbase uses security practices, industry-leading, to keep the user money and assets safe. There is always a risk when it comes to the internet, so I recommend following the online best practices to keep the account information safe.
On the other hand, we have the human factor, the reality is that the majority of stolen accounts were stolen because of the human factor, things like following a link from an email that seems to be from Coinbase and entering your credentials is a good example of how accounts are stolen. The fact is that is much harder to hack or trespass the Coinbase security than hacking the human factor, through phishing. That’s why I highly recommend reading the following Coinbase articles:
- Avoiding cryptocurrency scams
- Password requirements and troubleshooting
- Reporting phishing sites
- What is phishing?
- Why did I receive an unexpected device confirmation email?
- Phone-based attacks
Coinbase is a safe service but this doesn’t mean that there are risks according to phishing, the human factor. That’s why you should never share your credentials, let someone use your phone unsupervised, or follow email links. If you hesitate it's better to contact Coinbase through the app or their official email, you will lose some time but it's much better than losing your account.
Are the trading fees high?
The trading fees are always something to be aware of because maybe you only want to send 10$ to your nephew but this fee could be, on some platforms, a very significant percentage of those ten dollars.
Here it's important to say that the Coinbase fee and the chain fee are two different things. The Coinbase fee is a fee you must pay when you want to trade and it's for using the Coinbase platform. That’s one thing and another different thing is the fee that the user of the chain must pay for using that chain. For example, I want to send an amount of eth to a wallet, in this case, I will need to pay the Coinbase fee and the chain fee because I'm using the eth20 chain the fee of the chain is going to be high, and this will fluctuate according to the numbers of users making transactions at the same time. It's important to be aware of this difference, with this said the Coinbase fees are the following:
Trade Size
Coinbase Fee
$10 or less
$0.99
$10 to $25
$1.49
$25 to $50
$1.99
$50 to $200
$2.99
In addition to fixed trade fees, Coinbase transactions are subject to a spread-based fee of 0.50%.
Trades above $200 have a percentage-based fee rather than a flat fee.
Other fees may be charged for certain account funding and withdrawal methods, and other less common services:
Payment Method
Coinbase Fee*
Bank Account
1.49%
USD Wallet
1.49%
Debit/Credit card
3.99%
ACH Transfer
Free
Wire Transfer
$10 incoming, $25 outgoing
Crypto Conversion
2%
*Fees were confirmed through a test trade
How is the trading experience?
The Coinbase platform offers a very friendly experience to a beginner and it's easy to use. As mentioned before, you can access the Coinbase platform through the web or the Android and iOS mobile devices. if you have some experience with an online brokerage or trading stocks, you will find that Coinbase offers a similar experience.
Maybe is because of this why the different charts of the cryptocurrencies are very simplified, searching for a friendly user experience. In this way, Coinbase offers the user to trade and exchange cryptocurrencies but if you are looking for a “pro” version you can always go with Coinbase pro, oriented to the more advanced users. In my opinion, you can work with the normal version and be just fine, the only downside it’s that the chart presented to the user is a line chart where the information is limited if you want to do a technical study.
On the other hand, it has a very useful functionality, especially if you want to know more about the searched crypto and its community, it has two dedicated spaces, one, is presented in all the cryptocurrencies, presenting the user articles about that crypto and the second one, only presented in some cryptos, oriented to the community of that specific crypto. In addition, you have a detailed view of the crypto with information about the chain and links, to the whitepaper and the official website.
Conclusion
The Coinbase platform is very accessible, through the web or the mobile app, very user-friendly, and a good way to start learning and trading with cryptos. The different functionalities make this platform an off-road platform, useful to trade, learn and earn. It's important to remind the fees of Coinbase if you are buying a small amount of crypto, $10, you will pay $0.99, this means your fee could be nearly ten percent.
To conclude, remember, to have a diversified portfolio with an investment strategy working in the background, to read and make your own research and study on your future investments, and keep always some liquidity and a part of your money in a high-yield saving account.
Coinbase is a safe service but this doesn’t mean that there are risks according to phishing, the human factor. That’s why you should never share your credentials, let someone use your phone unsupervised, or follow email links. If you hesitate it's better to contact Coinbase through the app or their official email, you will lose some time but it's much better than losing your account.
Are the trading fees high?
The trading fees are always something to be aware of because maybe you only want to send 10$ to your nephew but this fee could be, on some platforms, a very significant percentage of those ten dollars.
Here it's important to say that the Coinbase fee and the chain fee are two different things. The Coinbase fee is a fee you must pay when you want to trade and it's for using the Coinbase platform. That’s one thing and another different thing is the fee that the user of the chain must pay for using that chain. For example, I want to send an amount of eth to a wallet, in this case, I will need to pay the Coinbase fee and the chain fee because I'm using the eth20 chain the fee of the chain is going to be high, and this will fluctuate according to the numbers of users making transactions at the same time. It's important to be aware of this difference, with this said the Coinbase fees are the following:
Trade Size | Coinbase Fee |
$10 or less | $0.99 |
$10 to $25 | $1.49 |
$25 to $50 | $1.99 |
$50 to $200 | $2.99 |
In addition to fixed trade fees, Coinbase transactions are subject to a spread-based fee of 0.50%.
Trades above $200 have a percentage-based fee rather than a flat fee.
Other fees may be charged for certain account funding and withdrawal methods, and other less common services:
Payment Method | Coinbase Fee* |
Bank Account | 1.49% |
USD Wallet | 1.49% |
Debit/Credit card | 3.99% |
ACH Transfer | Free |
Wire Transfer | $10 incoming, $25 outgoing |
Crypto Conversion | 2% |
*Fees were confirmed through a test trade
How is the trading experience?
The Coinbase platform offers a very friendly experience to a beginner and it's easy to use. As mentioned before, you can access the Coinbase platform through the web or the Android and iOS mobile devices. if you have some experience with an online brokerage or trading stocks, you will find that Coinbase offers a similar experience.
Maybe is because of this why the different charts of the cryptocurrencies are very simplified, searching for a friendly user experience. In this way, Coinbase offers the user to trade and exchange cryptocurrencies but if you are looking for a “pro” version you can always go with Coinbase pro, oriented to the more advanced users. In my opinion, you can work with the normal version and be just fine, the only downside it’s that the chart presented to the user is a line chart where the information is limited if you want to do a technical study.
On the other hand, it has a very useful functionality, especially if you want to know more about the searched crypto and its community, it has two dedicated spaces, one, is presented in all the cryptocurrencies, presenting the user articles about that crypto and the second one, only presented in some cryptos, oriented to the community of that specific crypto. In addition, you have a detailed view of the crypto with information about the chain and links, to the whitepaper and the official website.
Conclusion
The Coinbase platform is very accessible, through the web or the mobile app, very user-friendly, and a good way to start learning and trading with cryptos. The different functionalities make this platform an off-road platform, useful to trade, learn and earn. It's important to remind the fees of Coinbase if you are buying a small amount of crypto, $10, you will pay $0.99, this means your fee could be nearly ten percent.
To conclude, remember, to have a diversified portfolio with an investment strategy working in the background, to read and make your own research and study on your future investments, and keep always some liquidity and a part of your money in a high-yield saving account.
0 Comments