Coinbase Pro Review
Bitcoin has evolved over the years to become a highly volatile asset that is sought after by both large institutions and investors alike. Nowadays, when everyone is looking to invest in cryptocurrency, it is essential to get a trusted exchange. Therefore, today, we are granting you a Coinbase Pro exchange review to help you make informed decisions as you journey on crypto trading.
With the current increase in the demand for cryptocurrency, there is a need for more trusted exchanges. Due to perpetual improvements, it has become much easier to buy, sell, hold and exchange cryptocurrencies. However, before you can invest in Bitcoin or any other crypto product, you need a cryptocurrency exchange account.
The importance of signing up with a licensed and credible cryptocurrency exchange cannot be overstated. An exchange must have proper security measures in place. Also, it should provide satisfactory services to its customers to a certain acceptable level.
The most sought features in a crypto exchange are privacy and security. Some other features to look for in an exchange should include the transaction fees, ease of use, volume, liquidity, and support. These features cannot be overlooked when considering an exchange.
Having the best strategy is not just enough -the exchange chosen by investors or traders goes a long way to determine their success. Thus, in this review, we will be going through all that you need to know about the Coinbase Pro exchange. Coinbase is, without doubt, one of the most popular exchanges that offer an easy dive into the crypto world.
| Exchange platform | Coinbase Pro |
| Website | Pro.coinbase.com |
| Variety crypto | 100 |
| Account needed | Yes |
| Verification | Mandatory |
| Verification levels | 2 |
| Trading Platform | Web-based |
| Payment Method | Bank account, Coinbase USD wallet, Debit/Credit card, ACH transfer, Wire transfer, Crypto Conversion |
| Customer Support | Email, Twitter, Phone |
What is Coinbase Pro?
Coinbase Pro (formerly known as GDAX) was launched by Coinbase in 2015 and is one of the leading cryptocurrency exchanges in the United States. While Coinbase itself functions more like a broker, Coinbase Pro is an exchange, particularly for advanced traders. The exchange offers a lot of options not available on the parent platform. It also has a cheaper and distinct fee structure.
The exchange aims to build a more accessible, efficient, and open economy for cryptocurrency transactions. Coinbase Pro seeks to create a platform where anyone can easily send and receive cryptocurrency. A major draw of the platform is the robust trading tools and flexible experience it offers.
Traders feel confident when trading on Coinbase Pro because of the assurance that it is fully regulated and licensed. Over time, the company has accrued a large number of loyal customers in more than 100 countries. Currently, the exchange has more than 43 million verified users with a total pooled asset worth $90 billion.
As mentioned earlier, one of the prominent features of a good exchange is the number of transactions – trading volume on the platform. The total volume traded on Coinbase Pro has exceeded $455 billion. Obviously, having good support in any company is also essential. The exchange has more than a thousand trusted employees.
Coinbase Pro Trading services
Coinbase Pro is designed for experts and offers better alternatives for more advanced crypto trading. Transactions on the platform are executed at swift speed once funds have been deposited into the account.
Coinbase Pro Fees
One key measure of a good exchange is the transaction fees. No one wants to be charged a highly-priced amount for transactions with lower returns than the fee itself. An exchange should thus offer low transaction fees to users. In essence, the fees paid should always make up a little and affordable part of the user funds.
Different fee structures apply on the platform depending on the orders you place. When an order gets filled instantly, you are considered a taker. Conversely, when your order is placed in an order book before it is matched eventually, you are a maker.
Both makers (those that provide liquidity) and takers (those that take liquidity) are charged differently on the platform. The fees paid on the platform are relatively low and ranges from 0.04% to 0.5% for the taker fee and 0.00% to 0.05% for the maker fee. However, the fee structure on the platform depends on which side of the order you belong to.
What Coinbase does is to estimate the amount they expect to be charged to execute your transaction, and then they charge you that same amount. Nevertheless, the fees charged are all revealed during the transaction.
However, signing up for a Coinbase Pro account is free; you do not have to pay a dime. Also, you are not charged any fee for holding crypto assets or cash in your Coinbase Pro account. You can hold assets for as long as you desire.
Withdrawal and Deposit Fees
The withdrawal and deposit fees for fiat money depend on what transfer method you choose. There are no fees charged for ACH transfers. For Wire transfers in USD, deposits are charged $10 while the withdrawal fee is $25. For SEPA (EUR), both the deposit fee and withdrawal fees are €0.15. For Swift (GBP), making a deposit is free, but to withdraw, you will be charged £1.
Coinbase Pro API
The platform’s API is one of the leaders in the industry. The API design makes it very easy to assess real-time data via a WebSocket feed. You can also build automated trading bots that are highly secure through the trading API.
Coinbase has a whole page dedicated to the API for those with the technical know-how. The documents available on the page contain market details, exchange functionality, and APIs. The API is divided into the trading and feed categories.
While the Feed APIs are public and can provide access to the market data, the Trading APIs give access to account information like placing orders and other account-related details.
Coinbase Pro Limits and Liquidity
There is no cap on the amount of Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Litecoin you can deposit to your Coinbase Pro account. Traders on the Coinbase Pro have access to immense liquidity. As a result, individual account holders have a maximum withdrawal of $10,000, while institutional account holders are capped at $50,000 per day.
Also, the company accepts requests to withdraw higher amounts than the specified limits. However, there are still some limitations to the quantity of fiat currency that could be deposited or withdrawn on/from the account.
Summarily, the exchange provides a seamless trading experience for traders and is an excellent choice for professionals. Users have access to high liquidity for all trading pairs.
Coinbase Pro Portfolios
Like we mentioned earlier, a distinguishable feature for any financial service provider is the availability of multiple trading options. That will provide traders with profound experience and knowledge to be able to make informed trading decisions. The presence of such flexible alternatives impacts, to a large extent, the user’s trading experience.
Similar to the other top exchanges, Coinbase Pro is not lagging regarding portfolios. The exchange provides the option for users to spread their funds across different portfolios. Depending on your strategy, funds invested, risk management goals, profit targets, you can segregate your funds into varied portfolios.
This feature is a complement for advanced traders since newbies and averagely-experienced investors might not value it. With tools like this, users have mastery over their funds and can invest the way they seem fit. Apart from improving the trading experience, another great benefit of the portfolios is that they can help with risk management.
Cryptocurrencies Available on Coinbase
For any finance-related platform, high trading volume is usually an indication of high liquidity. That, in turn, allows traders to make faster transactions at the best price. High liquidity also implies that a particular financial market is efficient and carries a low risk.
To start with, Coinbase offers a wide range of crypto assets and also supports fiat currencies like the USD, GPB, EUR. The mainstream cryptocurrencies traded on the platform include Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Ripple (XRP), Litecoin (LTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Ethereum Classic, Basic Attention Token, and many more.
The company also supports the trading of crypto pairs with the Stablecoin USDC. A Stablecoin has its value tied to another asset like the U.S Dollar, cryptocurrency, or exchange-traded commodity to minimize volatility. Coinbase supports the trading of cryptocurrencies like BTC, ETH, DAI against the USDC.
Since Coinbase is available in many countries, the laws applicable in the different regions will vary. The various regulations specific to the trading of cryptocurrency pairs are highly contingent on the local regulators. For instance, some countries support the trading of only a few pairs.
Therefore, it is advisable to frequently check the available pairs that are allowed in your region. Coinbase Pro account holders can verify information regarding any trading pair on the order book. However, Coinbase Pro is supported in more than a hundred countries.
Coinbase Pro interface
To give users the best experience while trading, the interface of any exchange platform must be as user-friendly as possible. It is the one particular feature that could put traders off when not properly implemented. A proper user interface must be intuitive, easy to use, and provide the appropriate trading tools.
The Coinbase platform is straightforward and easy to use, especially for expert traders. The interface offers astute simplicity, which can enable you to navigate it without difficulty. Furthermore, the platform is also intuitive and makes available a wide range of trading tools to pro traders.
The user interface includes features, such as the order book, open orders, trade history, balance, candlestick price pattern, and multiple time frames to view charts. It offers many more features that can make your trading experience an easy one. The interface also includes options where users can customize the platform to conform to their trading rituals.
Although the interface contains various advanced tools for professional traders, its simplicity makes it easy to traverse. You can place trades without stress and choose from the available order types – Market, Limit, or Stop. Making deposits/withdrawals on the platform is as easy as the click of a button, through which you can select a suitable transfer.
How secure is Coinbase Pro?
As mentioned earlier, the security and privacy features should be at the core of every cryptocurrency exchange and should never be overlooked, considering the increasing scam rate. Nevertheless, your account on any crypto exchange is as safe as you make it. That means that you have to make sure to utilize every security feature provided by your exchange.
Coinbase practices adequate AML – Anti-Money Laundering – and Know Your Customer (KYC) measures. Therefore, Coinbase Pro requires you to provide your details, including your name, email address, a strong password, driver’s license, and other necessary information. The exchange offers a 2-step verification on the platform and several other security measures.
Another feature used by Coinbase to secure users’ accounts is the biometric fingerprint logins. Also, 98% of the digital assets are stored in encrypted offline storage. To further protect customers in the event of a network breach, Coinbase ensures that the 2% are insured.
However, the insurance does not cover losses due to individual mistakes. Customers’ funds are FDIC-backed for USD balances up to $250,000 even though the crypto assets are not privately insured. Also, the company runs background checks and other measures on its workers before they are hired and even after hiring.
On data security, Coinbase Pro ensures that Bitcoins are stored in different geographical locations in safe boxes and vaults. Sensitive data are not stored online but offline to mitigate the negative impacts of a possible breach. The data are further protected by their transfer to FIPS-40 hardware and paper backup – after they are first secured with AES-256 encryption.
Coinbase Pro runs all site traffic over HTTPS to comply with the best practices of the payment industry. It is not enough to depend solely on the security measures of a crypto exchange. Account-holders also have to practice due diligence before making transactions and ensure the legitimacy of third-party services.
Customer support
Coinbase Pro has more than a thousand employees who have been properly vetted before they were employed. Therefore, due to the unyielding efforts of the committed team, customers enjoy outstanding customer support. With the ever-increasing customer base, the support team is always responsive to users’ queries.
Coinbase also offers trading advice even though they are not an indication to take trades or any actions. Again, the exchange provides informational pieces to educate users on cryptocurrencies and other related subjects. Furthermore, Coinbase Pro renders phone support for emergency cases. For instance, when users have a suspicion that there is a compromise, they can lock their accounts on their phones.
As part of the security measures practiced by Coinbase, the company’s support team would never make outbound phone calls to customers. The exchange has cautioned that customers who receive such calls should report immediately. Also, the exchange would never call customers to ask for their two-step verification codes and password.
With the explosive progress of technology, any 21st-century company would have a means of receiving feedback from customers or reporting an issue. In the case of Coinbase, there are several ways through which you can get in touch with the support team. However, the primary route to get in contact is through email.
To submit requests through email, you have to use the address linked to your Coinbase account. Also, you would need to choose the most appropriate category and subcategory. You must be elaborate on the issue you wish to report.
Coinbase Pro has a Twitter handle where it announces updates concerning its products. However, due to security reasons, the exchange does not reply to account-related concerns via Twitter. Customers have to make account-related inquiries through email.
- Phone
The exchange does not provide phone support with a live agent. However, if you suspect any inconsistency with your account or a breach, you can call Coinbase Support so they could instantly deactivate your account. When that is done you will be asked to go through the automated account recovery process to reassess your account.
The recovery process for your account can take several days before it is finally completed. You can get the Support phone number for the company on the email request form. Contrarily, to contact an agent, you will have to submit an email request.
Conclusion
With the splendid features available on Coinbase Pro, there is no doubt it is one of the best cryptocurrency exchanges. The platform is secured and insured against attacks through the security measures structured to protect user funds. Similarly, the user’s personal data are protected from possible online breaches through offline storage methods.
The user interface is top-notch, with a wide range of tools to ease trading and flexible navigation. Coinbase Pro Support team is excellent and quite responsive to issues without much time lag. The platform also provides high liquidity for traders, enabling them to access a wide variety of crypto assets.
Finally, it is impossible to trade crypto assets without an account with an exchange. To benefit from the offers available on Coinbase Pro, you should consider opening an account with them.
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