Coinbase is one of the most popular exchanges to buy and sell bitcoin, litecoin and ethereum. The company was founded in 2012 by Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam, the headquarters is in San Francisco. Coinbase is a regulated entity and complies with all applicable laws and regulations in each jurisdiction in which it operates. Coinbase currently operates in 32 countries across Asia, Australia, Europe and North America. Global Digital Asset Exchange (GDAX) is a trading platform for Coinbase, trades on this platform have a maker/taker price model, takers are usually charged 0.25% of the trade amount while makers have no transaction costs. Coinbase store the vast majority of the digital assets in secure offline storage and all USD balances are covered by FDIC insurance, up to a maximum of $250,000 per customer.

Website hacking has been on the rise lately, especially concerning cryptocurrency exchanges. The exchange hasn’t yet suffered a major hack. However, there are a few alleged reports by individuals, who claim their accounts were hacked. It is hard to verify their claims or if they aren’t to blame for mistakes like having a weak password. Coinbase has a long-standing reputation with best security practices and stable wallets. Security systems are constantly upgraded and tested to ensure that Coinbase is exceeding industry-best standards. I have read reviews about Coinbase stating that it’s one of the best places for new users and beginners wanting to get their first cryptocurrencies but there are also negative reviews. According to user experiences, Coinbase’s simple interface aims to make it easy for first-time buyers to purchase bitcoins. The company has invested a lot of time and money into making their user experience smooth and painless. The verification process requires personal information, address, phone number and a scan of the photo ID (passport, national ID, driver’s license) and a picture of the user holding Photo ID. A deposit can be made by depositing digital currency and/or Fiat currency from your basic Coinbase account, bank account or an external digital currency address into your GDAX account. I have found that some users are complaining about account closures. Forcible account closures are probably the most commonly held grudge against Coinbase. Due to the company’s tight integration with traditional banking laws, such closures are inevitable. Many users expressed their dissatisfaction with GDAX bugs and outages. Coinbase offers professional customer support round the clock – seven days a week and 24 hours a day. The support is available via email, telephone, and live chat. Over 10,100,000 users are signed up on the official website which confirms that this exchange is not a scam.

Experiences with Coinbase

I did not find any incidents and complaints that make this exchange scam but Coinbase certainly needs some improvements to become a more reliable partner. Complaints vary from a slow processing of deposits, problems with withdrawal, lack of response by the customer support to bugs and outages. I also found some negative reviews on the forums but this is connected with the situation that Coinbase has been unprepared for a surge of new users and surge in trading in last several months. Coinbase’s support answered 99Bitcoins’ claims once every 48 hours on average and this confirms that Coinbase is not a scam. The following quotes give you a sense of what other traders think about this cryptocurrency exchange:

• I have repeatedly tried to verify myself with Coinbase via a photo id but each time the process will not complete as it appears to be hung up
• Coinbase is indeed one of the top site for newbie purchasers
• Coinbase is one of most reputable bitcoin exchanges –, especially for the beginners. Yes, their support is slow and overloaded with new users
• One of the strengths of Coinbase is that the trading interface code is open source
• A friend of a friend was hacked on Coinbase and he had not heard back from anyone on Coinbases’s support team for multiple days
• Coinbase has been unprepared for a surge of new users and surge in trading in last several months
• My first transaction with this company went smoothly. The next time it took several hours for them just to broadcast the transaction to the bitcoin network
• Very easy to get verified, deposit cash and buy currency – however, it is hard to WITHDRAW money from your account
• I have been using Coinbase for three months (Oct 2017). It set up OK and my first cash transfer from my UK bank went well. However, transfers made in December are still to arrive with my Coinbase account
• To verify your account you have to send a ‘small payment’ to their bank, which is abroad, so, therefore, your bank charges you

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Is Coinbase really a scam? At least their lack of support may suggest that, 2.0 out of 10 based on 1 rating