Coinbase alternative and the cryptocurrency market is becoming more popular every year. If before hardly anyone had heard of its existence, now the situation has changed dramatically. People are not only actively interested in this topic, but also try to understand how you can make money on it. And most people choose crypto exchanges. They can store their savings (in the form of a deposit), trade, trying to capitalize on market volatility, or simply make exchange transactions.
Most famous cryptocurrency exchange
One of the most famous exchanges today is Coinbase. The number of users has long exceeded 10 million. Convenience, wide functionality, recognition and a high level of protection make the exchange attractive to most market participants. But is Coinbase really so good and outperforms all its competitors? Or are there good, but less well-known Coinbase alternative to a wide range of users? Let’s get it right. Let’s conduct a small comparative analysis with several exchanges.
Gemini
Year of Creation – 2015
Creators – Winklevoss twins
Headquarters – New York, USA
Usability
Undoubtedly, for beginners, Coinbase will seem to be a more convenient option for buying and selling cryptocurrencies. On it, you can go through the simplest registration procedure and immediately start buying and selling coins at the declared value, while in Gemini you need to go through verification (you need some documents, a photo, a mobile phone confirmation).
The whole process can take up to a couple of days. In addition, Coinbase lacks such confusing terms for beginners as, for example, “stop limit” or “market sale”. However, experienced market participants would greatly appreciate the wide functionality. A huge set of tools opens up a lot of new opportunities for them.
Cryptocurrency exchange security
Both exchanges are especially sensitive to security issues. Customer accounts are separated from funds used by companies for work. Two-factor authentication is used everywhere (password and mobile phone), which significantly reduces the likelihood of hacking. Each of the exchanges has its own security features (for example, Coinbase – the site’s information flow passes through encrypted SSL – HTTPS, Gemini has two levels of cold storage).
Deposit at Coinbase and Gemini
Users can choose several ways to replenish the balance. However, Coinbase’s choice is still a bit wider. Coinbase provides the ability to fund your account with a credit / debit card or bank transfer. Gemini offers us to use exclusively bank transfer.
Coinbase and Gemini fees
Coinbase fixed fee for all transactions – up to $ 200. If the user makes any purchase using a credit / debit card, the exchange will take 3.99% in the form of commission fees. For other acquisitions or sales – 1.49%.
Note, free bank transfers (however, a withdrawal of $ 0.15). Some states impose partial restrictions (in Canada, for example, a purchase can only be made with a debit / credit card).
There is no deposit fee for Gemini. There is a six-level commission system. The percentage is floating. It depends on how much the user has sold and bought BTC and ETH for the last month (starting from 1% and ending even 0%).
In terms of commissions, Gemini is much more profitable for traders.
In addition, it is important to note that the choice of cryptocurrencies at Coinbase is slightly wider than that of Gemini (4 vs. 2), which is an undoubted advantage. However, when compared with other exchanges, it turns out that both exchanges have a variety of coins that are not impressive.
Binance
Year of Creation – 2017
Creator – Changpeng Zhao
Headquarters – Malta
Binance is a decent Coinbase alternative. Now the exchange is actively developing, so its name is widely known to many.
Wide selection of cryptocurrencies
As mentioned earlier, Coinbase’s choice of cryptocurrencies is not that impressive. Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash are represented there. The choice for Binance is much wider. Hundreds of other coins are represented there (for example, Monero, Cardano, Ark, Ripple)
Security
Coinbase pays great attention to security. User funds are well protected. 98% is stored in offline storage, and the remaining 2% is insured. FDIC insurance guarantees users that funds in the amount of up to $ 250 thousand in case of unforeseen circumstances will be reimbursed.
Binance fees
Binance fees, all you need to know about it.
Depending on the method of purchasing coins, the commission fee at Coinbase varies from 1.49% to 3.99%. If the amount of investment is less than $ 200, then the commission may be even higher. Binance has one of the lowest commissions among all exchanges – only 0.1% per trade. If the user uses Binance Coin, then the commission is reduced by half.
As for the interface and ease of use, the situation is similar to that of Gemini. Coinbase was made for beginners, and Binance for active traders, as a result of which the toolkit of the latter is clearly wider.
To summarize the Coinbase alternative, we note that Coinbase has some notable differences from other exchanges. Firstly, a high commission. Secondly, not the largest selection of coins. However, for beginners, simply can not find a better option. To enter the sphere, this is the very thing. A good reputation and a high level of security will not make you doubt.
