If you want to get involved in cryptocurrency investing, Coinbase is undoubtedly your first choice. Since their inception, Coinbase has provided a great user experience for beginners. However, Coinbase fees are slightly more expensive compared to other platforms, which often leads investors to look for the best Coinbase alternatives.
Coinbase is an online digital currency exchange headquartered in San Francisco, California. They broker exchanges of Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, and Litecoin with fiat currencies in around 32 countries. Coinbase was founded in 2012 by Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam.
What Are The Best Alternatives To Coinbase?
1. Binance
Binance is a world-renowned crypto exchange that offers a native coin, Binance Coin (BNB). BNB runs on the Ethereum blockchain and can be used to pay fees on the Binance exchange.
While Coinbase lost over 82%, Binance's average volume dropped by only 66% within the same period, from $32.9 billion to $11 billion in July. Binance remains the world’s largest exchange by trading volume and the biggest exchange by Bitcoin supply.
Binance gained a net balance of roughly +300k BTC over the last two years. However, an aggregate of 450k BTC has been withdrawn from the exchange within the same period.
- Binance has listed 600+ cryptocurrencies.
- Turkey commands the highest traffic of all users on the exchange, at least 6.4% of the overall traffic.
- 2022 stats hold that Binance generated a revenue of $300 billion.
- Three countries have banned Binance: Singapore, China, and the United Kingdom.
- The exchange has over 2,000 employees spread out remotely across 20 locations.
- As of today, the Binance.com domain has received over 121 million visitors.
2. Bittrex
Bittrex is another US-based exchange founded in 2014. It's one of the most popular exchanges for trading altcoins.
It is one of the most popular cryptocurrency exchanges and allows you to buy and sell a large number of different digital assets.
3. Bitfinex
Bitfinex is a Hong Kong-based exchange founded in 2012 that offers margin trading and lending.
Bitfinex is one of the most popular cryptocurrency exchanges out there. It offers a wide range of trading pairs, low fees, and a user-friendly interface—however, some drawbacks to using Bitfinex, such as its hack history and issues with customer service.
4. Kraken
Kraken exchange is a full-stack cryptocurrency exchange that charges low fees and contains a diverse blend of altcoins to trade with. Besides, the exchange is one among few in the United States that provides advanced trading features such as Margin.
Features
Kraken Exchange is a good fit for: Experienced investors who will make the most of margin trading and other advanced features.
5. ShapeShift
ShapeShift is a digital asset exchange founded in 2014 that allows for converting one cryptocurrency to another.
It allows quick and easy swapping of one cryptocurrency to another. It is a popular choice for those looking to trade cryptocurrencies, as it offers a fast and straightforward way to do so.
6. Changelly
Changelly is a cryptocurrency exchange founded in 2013 that offers instant conversion between over 90 cryptocurrencies.
Changelly is a popular cryptocurrency exchange that allows users to convert between different cryptocurrencies easily.
7. BitBuy
The Bitbuy system now accepts seven cryptos. Bitbuy has the most significant number of CAD to cryptocurrency pairs of any exchange. For individuals wishing to get into the cryptocurrency market in Canada, Bitbuy provides a simple-to-use exchange.
Features
- Bitbuy Express Trade is a user-friendly interface for market participants to purchase Bitbuy-enabled cryptocurrencies.
- Pro Trade: A more advanced trading platform that allows you to trade cryptocurrency-crypto and cryptocurrency-Canadian Dollar pairs. Users can place market orders or limit orders to only purchase and sell.
- WALLETS: Bitbuy customers can withdraw cash, monitor their transaction records, and monitor their balances.
8. BitFlyer
BitFlyer is a cryptocurrency exchange located in Japan with a San Francisco branch. Although it only accepts a few virtual currencies, the cost strategy and design make it a decent choice for beginner cryptocurrency users. Experts can use a high-end active trading platform with a separate price plan.
BitFlyer gives a pricing mechanism with no particular per-trade costs, in addition to a straightforward platform for crypto beginners. Rather, it employs stretched pricing, which includes all costs in the currency's price.
In Japan, bitFlyer was launched in 2014. It purports to be the world's largest Bitcoin exchange by volume, despite not having many currencies on its list. It has a branch in the United States called bitFlyer USA, situated in San Francisco.
Pros and Cons
9. Huobi Exchange
Huobi is a simple and straightforward trading platform. The platform also exists as a native app for both IOS and android users. You will also love Huobi’s informative blog section, which provides blockchain and trading tutorials, press releases, reports, and a course called blockchain 101. Additionally, the digital asset platform has an excellent customer support team that quickly responds to queries. The platform is reliable and safe and adapts to the latest security protocols. Huobi uses cold storage and multi-layer verification, which ensure your funds are secure.
10. LocalCryptos
Think of Local Crypto as eBay for cryptocurrencies. A platform where merchants hold crypto and sell them to customers.LocalCryptos is the most popular peer-to-peer cryptocurrency market that serves people across 130 countries.
The exchange facilitates the buying and selling of Bitcoin, litecoin, or Ethereum. Note the exchange supports over 40 payment methods, including PayPal, Skrill, Mpesa, and many more.
The Australian exchange, which began and registered as LocalEthereum, would later rebrand to LocalCrypto in 2019. Localcrypto’s most popular money transfer methods include crypto transfer, debit/credit transfer, and bank transfers.
Features of LocalCrypto
- Peer-to-Peer Trades – Localcrypto will let you trade with over 200,000 traders from across the world through different payment methods.
- Non-Custodial Exchange – The exchange does not have access to personal local crypto wallets and does not store one’s coins.
- Non-custodial escrow – Localcrypto is the first crypto platform to provide a non-custodial escrow system.
- Low Fees – The platform places a fee of 0.25% and a 0.75% taker fee. The maker is the person who posts an offer, while the taker is the person that responds to that offer.
- End-to-end message encryption – Data privacy comes first. Therefore the platform uses end-to-end encryption to secure all your chats and messages. However, in disputes, the platform can decrypt the messages and use them as evidence.
- Community voting – The platform engages its community of users in voting for the next most viable cryptocurrency or having users suggest new features.
- Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Ethereum – The platform, which started as a P2P marketplace for Ethereum, now supports Bitcoin and Litecoin.
- Customer support – The platform has responsive customer support that responds to queries on a 24/7 basis. Customers can reach the team through email, a contact form, or community channels on Telegram or Twitter.
What Are The Risks Of Using Coinbase?
One of the most significant risks of using Coinbase is that your account could be hacked. While Coinbase has implemented multiple layers of security, including 2-factor authentication, there have been instances of people having their accounts hacked. If your account is hacked, you could lose all of the funds in your account.
Using Coinbase has several drawbacks, including that they might not be able to complete all of your transactions during periods of increased market volatility. Because Coinbase uses a “maker-taker” approach, which means it will take part of your order as a “fee” for matching you with someone who wants to buy or sell the same amount of cryptocurrency, this is likely.
Coinbase's customer support, on the other hand, has been criticized for being slow and unhelpful. It is especially aggravating if you have an issue with your account and want assistance from customer service.
What to put into Consideration of Coinbase and Other Alternatives?
There are a few things to consider when looking for a Coinbase alternative. Whether or not the website is reliable and trustworthy. There have been some complaints about Coinbase in the past, so it's important to ensure that the website you're using is reputable.
Fees. Some of the other Coinbase alternatives charge fees, so it's essential to compare them before choosing an alternative.
Customer service. If you have any problems with the website, it's essential to ensure that the customer service is good.
Security. Some of the other Coinbase alternatives don't have as much protection as Coinbase, so it's essential to ensure that the website you're using is secure.
The user interface. Some of the other Coinbase alternatives have a lot of features, but they're not always easy to use.
The website is user-friendly. If you're not comfortable using the website, finding an alternative that's easier to use is important.
The website has a good reputation. Some websites have been known to be scams, so it's essential to ensure that the website you're using is well-known and trusted.
These are just a few things to consider when looking for a Coinbase alternative. There are many other things to consider, but these are some of the most important. If you take the time to consider these things, you'll be able to find an alternative that's right for you.
