Coinbase Review UK 2024 – Pros & Cons

Last year’s crypto boom had millions turning their eyes on the blockchain ecosystem and 2024 looks to be no different. If you’re looking to invest in cryptocurrencies, jump-start your crypto portfolio with Coinbase – a leading cryptocurrency exchange that’s great for buying, selling, and exchanging digital assets.

In this Coinbase review UK, we’ll go through everything you need to know about the crypto exchange including key metrics such as fees, accounts, crypto available, payment methods, and more.

What is Coinbase UK?

Established in 2012, Coinbase is an online cryptocurrency exchange and investing platform that offers users to trade the likes of Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and hundreds of others. With over 74 million users across more than a hundred countries, the platform is highly reputable and the most popular crypto exchange in the U.S.

With a mission to increase economic freedom in the world, Coinbase believes that cryptocurrencies can provide the core tenets of economic freedom. The company believes that everyone deserves access to financial services. Through crypto, they aim to empower people to create a better life for themselves and their families.

Cryptocurrencies are highly volatile assets. You should consider whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

In line with this vision, Coinbase created their standard platform to be very beginner-friendly with simple buy and sell orders. However, Coinbase also has a subsidiary platform called Coinbase Pro. This is suited for the advanced traders who actively day trade or buy and sell cryptocurrencies in the short term.

In addition to having a standalone cryptocurrency wallet service called Coinbase wallet, the cryptocurrency exchange runs two separate trading platforms. Despite being a centralized exchange, the company embraces cryptocurrency trends such as decentralized finance and even embraces decentralization as part of the growing crypto ecosystem.

Coinbase has come a long way from 2012 when it began as a startup under ex-Airbnb engineer Brian Armstrong and former Goldman Sachs trader Fred Ehrsam. From having its first funding from famous startup accelerator Y Combinator, the crypto exchange just went public in early Q2 last year. In our review of Coinbase, the company made its IPO on the Nasdaq and currently has a market capitalization of $51 billion.

Coinbase Pros & Cons

Cryptocurrencies are highly volatile assets. Your capital is at risk.

Which Cryptocurrencies Can You Trade in Coinbase?

We found in our Coinbase UK review that hundreds of cryptocurrencies are tradable on the platform. With a live Coinbase account, here are some of the cryptocurrencies on the site:

• 1INCH – 1Inch
• AAVE – Aave
• ALGO – Algorand
• BCH – Bitcoin Cash
• CRV – Curve
• MATIC – Polygon
• USDC – USD Coin
• USDT – Tether
• XLM – Stellar Lumens
• XRP – Ripple
• XTZ – Tezos

Bitcoin

Even if you haven’t been initiated in the crypto sphere, chances are you’ve heard about Bitcoin one way or another. Perhaps the most synonymous term to cryptocurrency, Bitcoin is the most valuable cryptocurrency to date. Back in April, its price exceeded $60 thousand coincidentally with Coinbase going public that same month.

Bitcoin was designed to be electronic cash, basically a store of value. Thanks to its deflationary and decentralized nature, cryptocurrency is considered to be the gold standard among digital assets. From our Coinbase exchange review, users can view the total market cap of Bitcoin at $812 billion, view the number of coins being circulated, and the typical holding time.

One of the key aspects that investors might look at when adding a cryptocurrency is its utility. This is one factor that sets the digital assets apart. Bitcoin’s utility comes as an alternative to traditional currencies and is the number one coin in terms of market cap.

As a medium of exchange and store of value, Bitcoin’s price movements aren’t as volatile as compared to smaller cap coins, but its price action remains volatile as compared to more traditional assets.

Lastly, Bitcoin uses a consensus protocol known as proof of work (PoW) which prevents the problem of double-spending and certain types of malicious economic attacks on the network. Essentially, bitcoin is mined via computers using a hash function which allows nodes in the network to all agree on the information in the distributed ledger of the blockchain.

Ethereum

The second most popular cryptocurrency also known as digital silver is Ethereum, a platform intended to facilitate immutable, programmatic contracts and applications via its own currency. The main difference between Ethereum and Bitcoin is that the former facilitates in and monetizes operations of smart contracts and decentralized apps (dApps).

To add to this, Ethereum smart contracts are decentralized and self-executing contracts where the terms between the parties of the agreement are written in code. The code that they’re written in is an object-oriented programming language called Solidity. Code in smart contracts is also open-source, meaning the actual lines of code are available to the public to see exactly how the contract works.

Through smart contracts, certain applications can be run on the Ethereum blockchain which is known as dApps. There’s a whole slew of use cases for dApps, such as decentralized finance dApps which have grown in popularity.

Cryptocurrencies are highly volatile assets. Your capital is at risk.

Litecoin

One of the top 20 most popular cryptocurrencies, Litecoin is a similar cryptocurrency to Bitcoin but able to do more transactions at a lower cost. Founded by ex-Google engineer Charlie Lee, Litecoin aims to be a faster, cheaper, and more decentralized digital asset than Bitcoin.

Using the same consensus protocol as Bitcoin, Litecoin can be mined but using a different hashing algorithm than its predecessor. However, with Litecoin’s new hashing function, miners can perform something known as merge mining where two coins can be mined using the same processing power for just one token. Litecoin can be merged mined with popular memecoin Dogecoin.

There aren’t very many whale wallets or large accounts that hold huge quantities of Litecoin - with most whales reputable large exchange companies. Litecoin has closely followed the price movements of Bitcoin and offers a very fresh alternative to the gold standard crypto.

Binance Coin

For a coin that was launched in 2017, Binance Coin (BNB) is the fourth largest cryptocurrency in terms of market cap. Its meteoric rise can be attributed to becoming one of the biggest blockchain infrastructure providers in the ecosystem.

Launched by one of the largest crypto exchanges, Binance, Binance Coin was built with the aim of being fast and could handle a lot more data than Ethereum. After an iteration of the blockchain, Binance created the Binance Smart Chain that features smart contracts and is actually a fork of Ethereum.

In this Coinbase com review, we found that Binance Coin is not supported on Coinbase but can be swapped via cryptocurrency from a Coinbase wallet.

Cardano

Just a couple of short years after Ethereum was created, one of its founders, Charles Hoskinson, created Cardano. In short, Cardano (ADA) is a proof of stake cryptocurrency that aims to be more scalable, interoperable, and sustainable than its predecessors.

By using a system called Ouroboros which essentially speeds up the blockchain to be consistent with its users, Cardano has set itself up to be a scalable cryptocurrency. In terms of interoperability, Cardano can be easily bridged with other cryptocurrencies.

Using a proof of stake (PoS) consensus protocol which is more energy-efficient than Bitcoin’s PoW model, Cardano has been able to keep itself sustained as a cryptocurrency. In our review Coinbase, Cardano can be traded and bought in the platform, with price correlations UniSwap according to the crypto exchange.

Coinbase UK Fees & Commissions

From our Coinbase review UK, it's important to know the different fees and commissions that come with crypto trading on the exchange.

Here we have listed Coinbase’s key fees and commissions below:

Coinbase UK User Experience

The Coinbase platform is available on the web or through Android and iOS devices. Well built for first-time crypto investors and newbie traders in general, Coinbase has an easy-to-use platform that offers buy and sell executions on cryptocurrencies.

In your account dashboard, you'll already see your Coinbase portfolio which is a collection of the cryptocurrencies you currently have invested in. From this point in the site, you can easily access your watchlist which is a collection of your favorite cryptocurrency. At almost any point in the platform, you can search and start trading a cryptocurrency in just a few clicks.

Furthermore, since crypto markets operate 24/7, the platform is also accessible at any time. Also, depending on the payment method, account purchases are credited to your account instantly. This offers a seamless experience of funding and trading and withdrawals can also be made at similar speeds.

The second platform that's also a subsidiary of Coinbase is Coinbase Pro. Although this version of Coinbase seems like it's only for professional crypto traders, anyone with a Coinbase account, and actually uses the pro platform. From our Coinbase pro review, we found that it offers is a lot more cryptocurrency options and more trade types like having limit and stop orders. This platform is perfect for more advanced traders looking for more technical indicators and information in trading.

Coinbase UK Wallet Features

Just like regular wallets, crypto wallets let you share money just like cash but is way safer and much more permanent. As crypto wallets have become one of the most sought-after systems in the crypto space, Coinbase has its own crypto wallet known as Coinbase Wallet.

According to our Coinbase Wallet review, the crypto exchange's wallet offers support for over 4,000 crypto assets and a plethora of dApps. As the Coinbase Wallet is also available as a mobile app for Android and iOS, users can explore the decentralized web through the app while enjoying industry-leading security when it comes to their digital assets.

Being a self-custody wallet, Coinbase Wallet gives users complete control of their crypto assets. Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are among the most popular assets that have been traded over the past year and Coinbase Wallet allows users to safely store and easily view your NFTs in your wallet. If you already have a verified Coinbase account, you can link your Coinbase Wallet to the account to easily access your cryptocurrencies.

Coinbase UK Account Types 

In this review of Coinbase, we must go through the different account types as they both offer different features and can drastically affect your crypto trading and exchange experience. Below are the two main account types that Coinbase has to offer:

Note that Coinbase Pro, Coinbase's subsidiary platform can be accessed by anyone with a verified Coinbase account. This means that in order to trade under Coinbase Pro, users must first create a Coinbase Account and then opt to use the Coinbase Pro platform to enjoy its features.

The Coinbase Pro platform comes with advanced trading tools, charts, and top-level order books. Here, there are lower trading fees coupled with additional cryptocurrency pairs that are not featured in the standard Coinbase site.

Cryptocurrencies are highly volatile assets. Your capital is at risk.

Coinbase UK Mobile App Review

The Coinbase mobile app can be downloaded in the Google Play Store or App Store for Android and iOS mobile devices. It's a highly rated mobile app that takes the same features as its web platform but in a more mobile-friendly package. The app is intuitive and offers user-friendly features such as push notifications, alerts, and content browsing.

In this Coinbase app review, the mobile application is seen to easily facilitate the buying and selling of cryptocurrencies. As a 24/7 market, the cryptocurrency sphere requires consistent updating as markets continuously trade. With the Coinbase mobile app, users can stay informed with updates and features that help build your crypto knowledge and your portfolio through automatic buys and price alerts.

In the main dashboard of the applications, users can easily search the cryptocurrencies they wish to trade, view their current portfolio, and see the latest news and trends all in just a matter of taps. 98% of the cryptocurrency is stored securely offline and the rest is protected by their high-level security. It is even possible to lock the app with a passcode, or remotely disable your phone’s access to the app if it gets lost or stolen for added security.

Coinbase UK Deposit and Withdrawal Methods

UK customers have access to both a GBP and EUR wallet within their Coinbase account as seen in our Coinbase debit card review. However, wallets can be funded using a different payment method and cashouts may not be available for all UK customers. According to their site, sells will be offered in instances where cash out is not available.

Coinbase deposits can be made via Faster Payments or SEPA transfers while withdrawals include the previous methods alongside PayPal and Instant Card Withdrawals. Instant crypto purchases can be made via a 3D secure card. For Faster Payments and SEPA transfers, expect a 1-3 business day speed while PayPal should take around a day. Make sure to verify your account to avoid having a Coinbase account under review problem or even a Coinbase account under review for months.

Coinbase UK Contact and Customer Service

As the cryptocurrency markets run all throughout the day, the Coinbase customer service runs 24/7. Users may reach out to the crypto exchange by going to their Help Center which has answers to most questions regarding the platform. If you encounter a problem such as your Coinbase card review or a Coinbase account under review, you may contact them by either completing the form in their help page or contacting their service hotline.

If you are interested in partnering with Coinbase, they also have an affiliate program as per our Coinbase affiliate program review. As an affiliate, you'll get access to promotional assets as well as impact tracking software. You'll also get the chance to help promote Coinbase and even earn a commission when new customers join Coinbase through your promotions.

Is Coinbase UK Safe?

Coinbase is licensed to engage in money transmission operations as a registered money services business (MSB) with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). As seen on their website, Coinbase is required to comply with a number of financial services and consumer protection laws, including:

• The Bank Secrecy Act, which requires Coinbase to verify customer identities, maintain records of currency transactions for up to 5 years, and report certain transactions.
• The USA Patriot Act, which requires Coinbase to designate a compliance officer to ensure compliance with all applicable laws, create procedures and controls to ensure compliance, conduct training, and periodically review the compliance program.
• Most states’ money transmission laws and corresponding regulations.

In terms of international operations, Coinbase says they are committed to obtaining licenses as needed to comply with local laws.

How to Start with Coinbase UK

If you've ever opened an account with an online stock trading platform, creating an account with Coinbase should be just the same if not easier. Let’s go through the key steps on how to open a Coinbase UK account today.

Step 1: Open a Trading Account

Cryptocurrencies are highly volatile assets. Your capital is at risk.

First, head over to the Coinbase website and click on the Get Started button at the top right-hand corner. This should lead you to the account creation page where you simply fill up your first name, last name, email, and password to register. After agreeing to their User Agreement and Privacy Policy, you may click the Create Account button to get started.

Step 2: Verify Your Identity

Once you've filled in your initial account details and followed further instructions, you should already have access to the web platform. In the platform, you will be asked to verify your identity before you can start trading. Simply upload a clear image of either your passport, driver's license, or national ID in order to complete your verification.

Step 3: Deposit Funds

After fully verifying your identity, you may now proceed to fund your account. As a UK resident, you will need to fund your account via Fast Payments or a SEPA transfer. You may deposit by linking your UK bank account. Simply head over to Settings, then Payment Methods before initiating a transfer.

Step 4: Store Your Cryptos with Coinbase UK

With your account funded, you may start investing and adding cryptocurrencies to your Coinbase portfolio! Click on the Buy / Sell button on the upper right-hand side of the site. Then, click the Buy field to select the asset you'd like to purchase. Afterward, simply enter the amount you'd like to buy denominated in crypto and select your payment method. If the details are correct, click Buy to complete your purchase!

Coinbase UK Review - Conclusion

Whether you’re a newbie crypto investor or a seasoned cryptocurrency trader, Coinbase has something on the table for you. Start adding crypto to your portfolio with a standard Coinbase account or do more advanced crypto trading techniques via the Coinbase Pro platform.

To conclude, start trading the top cryptocurrencies using one of the largest crypto exchanges out there! Simply follow the link below and create an account with Coinbase UK today!

Cryptocurrencies are highly volatile assets. Your capital is at risk.

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