Coinbase is a digital currency exchange headquartered in San Francisco, California. They broker exchanges of Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, Litecoin, Tezos, and many others, with fiat currencies in approximately 32 countries, and bitcoin transactions and storage in 190 countries worldwide.
I use Coinbase to buy Bitcoin and Ethereum.
The Process – Buy Bitcoin With Debit/Credit Card
Let’s say you want to buy Bitcoin or another cryptocurrency to add to your wallet as an investment, to purchase another cryptocurrency, or to use to engage in leverage trading.
Well, after you link your bank account, credit or debit card to your Coinbase account, it is simply a matter of purchasing Bitcoin with either of those methods. It is very easy to do.
The Coinbase Wallet
Coinbase provides you with a wallet for each cryptocurrency purchased on their platform. Each wallet provides you with a receive (public) and a send (private) address. For those of you who do not understand cryptocurrency wallets, please read my article here.
Coinbase now has a mobile wallet for IOS and Android.
Cryptocurrencies Supported By Coinbase
Coinbase supports the following cryptocurrencies.
- Bitcoin (BTC)
- Ethereum (ETH)
- Ripple (XRP)
- Litecoin (LTC)
- Bitcoin Cash (BCH)
- EOS (EOS)
- Stellar Lumens (XLM)
- Ethereum Classic (ETC)
- Zcash (ZEC)
- Augor (REP)
- Dai (DAI)
- USD Coin (USDC)
- 0x (ZRX)
- Basic Attention Token (BAT)
Fees
Most transaction fees are 1.49% for standard buy and 3.99% for credit card buys. Depositing money is free via ACH transfer but otherwise costs $10.
See the full fee structure here.
Buying Limits
Once your Coinbase account is set up you will be able to buy a small number of Bitcoins until you raise your limit. For example, US residents who have a credit card on file in their Coinbase account (as backup) will be able to purchase up to $1000 worth of Bitcoins a week.
In order to raise your limits you will need to do the following:
- Provide and verify your phone number
- Provide and verify your personal information
- Provide and verify your photo id
If you are a fully verified US resident you can reach the highest limit which is currently $25K a day. Limits may also be set depending on the payment method you choose to buy the cryptocurrencies. For example, ACH transfer has higher limits than credit card purchases on Coinbase.
Problems
Coinbase is not without its share of problems. As a very large exchange (and one of the first), Coinbase has a very large customer base. It appears that they are short-staffed with regards to customer service agents which appears to be outsourced to overseas locations where there are language barrier problems when something needs to be explained or when customers attempt to explain their issues.
While Coinbase has a very large knowledge base that explains most standard requests, submitting support tickets on issues not covered with their knowledge base will not be responded to in a timely manner. It could take between 48-72 hours to get a response and it might not be a satisfactory response.
I have heard reports of individuals having their accounts closed or frozen without explanation. This has not happened to me.
If You Use Coinbase – My Recommendation
Admittingly, Coinbase makes it easy to purchase Bitcoin, Ethereum, and the other cryptocurrencies bulleted above.
My recommendation is that if you use Coinbase to purchase Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency supported on their platform, transfer your cryptocurrency onto a desktop wallet or a hardware wallet. Please read my article on the free desktop wallet I use and the hardware wallet I use to secure my large cryptocurrency holdings.
Get a Coinbase account HERE.
