Should I switch from Coinbase?

Like a lot of people I buy coins on Coinbase which I then convert to Ada using Binance. Recently I’ve heard discussion that Coinbase may not be the best for various reasons. Reasons like they are closed and inflexible as well as reporting your activities to the government. So I’m thinking of switching. Gemini has been suggested. Anyone use this platform? Or any others?

I’m not unhappy with Coinbase. They charge me .0297% because I use my bank account. Binance isn’t so bad either.

I just don’t have the experience yet to judge all this information.

Thanks!

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Personally I use Binance and it always works well. I have no experience with Coinbase so I cannot compare the two.

Yes, I like Binance. What do you use to make your initial purchase of coins if you don’t use Coinbase?

As a Canadian I use Shakepay to buy Eth and then I send it to Binance.

I think you can make direct purchases of Ada from USD on Bittrex. I have not tried it myself yet but have a friend who uses it. Simpler from a tax standpoint as a lot less to report.

I’ve heard of Bittrex and looked them over when I first started. Not sure why I didn’t go with them. Might have been sign up issues.

I want to do the least amount of reporting. None would be nice.

For me Coinbase (eth) > binance (eth to Ada) > Yoroi Wallet

I’ve been following Cryptoviser for a few weeks now and he is not fond of Coinbase. Mostly for what I would call a lack of responsiveness to the community. For example, not listing coins that probably should be listed and customers are asking for. Also, issues to deal with transparency.

I like Cryptoviser, he posts a 30+ minute video just about everyday with the latest news. He’s a BIG fan of Cardano so I guess I’m not hard to win over.

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I am using Kraken. Loving their low fees and responsive support. All deposits and withdrawals were fast and reliable so I have nothing to complain about. And they support Cardano/ADA directly.

The UI might not be super intuitive at first glance but I got pretty familiar with it under 5 minutes so it’s not so bad.

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I agree! The only thing about Kraken I don’t like is their new and ugly design. Everything else is smooth and fast and easy to handle.

I use the Coinbase -> Bittrex via Eth to purchase Ada. But I am thinking of going to Kraken to buy direct in USD.

Kraken sounds good. Buy Ada direct, low fees, fast turn around. I’m going to create an account.

I buy $100 per week on an auto schedule. Coinbase charges me 2.99 for that transaction. At .04 per Ada that’s about 74 Ada.

Then I go to Binance and they charge me a little bit for the conversion. As soon as the conversion is made I withdraw the Ada to my Daedalus wallet.

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That sounds like a complicated process… plus the fees are relatively high. For me, I deposit to Kraken using SEPA payment (takes approx. 1 day and costs 1$). Then, I buy ADA directly with fee below 0.3%. Finally, withdraw to my personal wallet.

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I’m curious how long have you been using this exchange?

Binance has just opened up using credit cards to buy BTC and ETH. I have used Coinbase because it’s been easy to buy my BTC there. One of the new pains about Coinbase is that they are charging a fee for international transfers on top of their normal transaction fee.

I’ll be using Binance to purchase my BTC from now on.

Coinbase is following Federal regulation. They want to be the place where institutional investors place their funds and trade. Everything they are doing is to comply with tax codes and trading regs. I’m betting they will be applying the same rules used in trading stocks to trading Crypto’s. Rules like wash rules.

If one is new to crypto Coinbase is a good place to start. It does offer storage protection and FDIC insurance for up to $200,000 of losses. BUT, if you have not properly secured your tokens you wont be insured against losses that will be attributed to your failure to secures your assets. Sounds strange when they say that your risk is 3% as 97% of your assets are moved off site. Basically 97% is in cold storage. This imply’s that only 3% is ever at risk.

If I’m holding tokens that Coinbase is supporting then I have no problem parking them there for easy access. Especially if they were bought elsewhere. It’s a tax headache to buy BTC at Coinbase transfer it to Binance and then buy something else.

IF Coinbase ever gets their ducks in a row and adds additional tokens that can easily be purchased directly rather than by using a takible transaction with BTC I’l be happy to use their platform. I have absolutely not problem with paying Uncle Sam his pound of flesh.

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Coinbase is reliable, regulated, and liable to US laws. Would you really send a process server to Moldova?

What’s in Moldova?

I’ve used Coinbase since 2013 but I am now considering other options. There is some concerns that many in the space have been raising regarding their recent acquisition of Neutrino…

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duane - you are paying high fees because you are making market orders. If you open an account on coinbase pro then you can make limit orders with no fee. I have an acct with coinbase pro and Gemini. Gemini now has higher fees. Both of them will report all of your activity to the Feds. There is no difference. The other exchanges mentioned require a wire transfer or cc to deposit USD both of which come with a high fee.

Ditto, Gdax, or Coinbase Pro as its called now is free if you do transfers, takes longer but saves a ton.