Recent changes to the Coinbase platform make this post outdated. You can check a more recent post here!
Coinbase is one of the largest exchanges where you can buy Cryptocurrencies with different FIAT currencies. For this reason, I am going to take a closer look at how you should trade or buy your Bitcoin on this platform. Coinbase actually offers two products. Coinbase and Coinbase Pro. Most of the time people just refer to it as just Coinbase which can be the cause of confusion. Keep in mind that Coinbase Pro is a free tool as well, despite what the name ‘Coinbase Pro’ can make you believe. Let’s take a look at why you should buy Bitcoin on Coinbase Pro instead of Coinbase. If you want to make recurring buy orders on Coinbase Pro as well, you can check out this previous post!
Overview
Just looking at the dashboards of both platforms it is quickly clear why people are still buying on Coinbase instead of Coinbase Pro. The Coinbase dashboard is very simplistic and looks easy to use, while Coinbase Pro looks a lot more intimidating. Sometimes, companies offer an easy option while charging you more for it. This is exactly the case here. Coinbase is not very transparent about the Coinbase Pro platform which can make it easy for people to think that it is a more advanced traders option.
Buying Bitcoin
Once you want to go ahead and buy Bitcoin (or any other cryptocurrency for that matter) you will see that the steps on the two platforms are basically equal.Â
If you would buy directly on Coinbase they would first mark up the price by 0,50%. In this case, the actual price was around €9427 on Coinbase Pro while Coinbase would show €9474. After that, they would charge €1.99 on a €50 purchase. You would end up with 0.0050674 BTC.
As you can see the buying process is almost the same (for market orders). You just have to fill in the amount you want to buy after selecting the correct currency. The difference is that Coinbase Pro will only charge you a total amount of €0.25 (or 0.5%). You would end up with 0.00528790 BTC.
Conclusion
As you can see, the difference is quite substantial. Fees matter a lot and on top of that Coinbase will charge you a marked up price. This is why you should buy Bitcoin on Coinbase Pro instead of Coinbase. Even if you are still pretty new to Bitcoin or cryptocurrencies, you will be much better off trading or buying on the Coinbase Pro platform. Keep in mind that this also applies if you want to sell your Bitcoin!
Just remember, ‘not your keys not your Bitcoin’ ?
I never used coinbase. I use bitonic when I buy Bitcoin, or BL3P (but haven’t used that in a while). Then again, I don’t buy Bitcoin regularly like you. I’m more of a LSI guy when it comes to Bitcoin.
‘Not your keys, not your Bitcoin’ is indeed very important. I do transfer mine to a hardware wallet occasionally!
Thanks for the input as always Vincent. I really appreciate it!
I am going to start a position in bitcoin. I have made an account with coinbase pro, is that the cheapest option out there? I don’t have a wallet, so I will be keeping it on the coinbase exchange. I presume if my position is less than 1000euro it should be safe right?
Hi Patrick,
In my opinion Coinbase (pro) is one of the better options out there. There could be exchanges that are cheaper but maybe nog available in your region. If they are cheaper it would probably be a tenth of a percentage or something like that. Not worth the hustle for me to change! Coinbase is indeed a reputable company as well so keeping your coins there, certainly if it is a smaller amount, is not bad ad all!
Kind regards,
Michiel
Thanks, your page is top notch! You should join Twitter! Loads of great accounts and you would learn so much as well as provide great value based off the content on your site here.
Hi Patrick,
Thanks for the great feedback and the tip about Twitter. I haven’t really used Twitter, even in my private life. Maybe I should take a look at it!
Again, thanks for the support, I really appreciate it!
Kind regards,
Michiel
Hello Michiel, thank you for this very interesting post! 🙂 I really appreciate your work.
Small question: I also want to open a Coinbase Pro account in Belgium. Do you know if we have to declare this account to the Belgium national Bank? As it’s a crypto account, I’m not sure about it…
Thanks in advance for answering me!
Hi Raphael,
Thank you for your comment and for the nice feedback. When it comes to cryptocurrencies it is not always super clear what the law says, or if it even says anything at all. I am convinced an exchange like Coinbase (or Gemini, Kraken, …) should probably be declared with the national bank. Personal/hardware wallets are a different story.
I think you can’t do anything wrong by just declaring the account. Am I 100% sure it is necessary? Sadly, no…
I am sorry that this is probably not the clear distinct answer that you expected. If I can help you with anything else, don’t hesitate to get in contact!
Kind regards,
Michiel