Why Does Coinbase Have 3 Different Apps?

San Francisco-based crypto exchange Coinbase is one of the only regulated crypto offerings for US citizens and offers over ten products for both retail and institutional clients. But newcomers to Coinbase are usually left confused.

While three of the firm’s retail products—Coinbase, Coinbase Pro, and Coinbase Wallet—may sound like they serve the same function, they actually cater to distinct audiences. This short guide tells you what each app does and who it's designed for.

The main Coinbase app

Coinbase's main app is known simply as "Coinbase." It lets you buy a range of cryptocurrencies, store them in its in-built wallet and trade them for other coins. It is the main app for retail investors who want to buy small amounts of cryptocurrency. It's available both as a mobile app or as a web interface.

The app, however, is relatively expensive (particularly for small transactions). When buying or selling cryptocurrency, the app charges either a flat fee between $0.99 to $2.99 or a fee that varies depending on a number of factors, whichever is greater. On top of that, it charges a 0.5% spread on the sale. This is where you pay more for the cryptocurrency you're buying than the market rate—and Coinbase pockets the difference.

Coinbase Review: Still The Best In 2021 For Bitcoin Beginners?

What is Coinbase? Coinbase is one of the largest and most well-known digital currency exchanges in the world. It’s widely considered to be one of the most accessible too, as it allows users to purchase crypto using fiat currencies. Coinbase has a slick, clean interface. Image: Coinbase Founded in San Francisco in 2012, Coinbase increased its assets under management from $35 billion in 2020 to $90 billion in 2021, and posted a Q1 2021 profit of $730-800 million. The exchange went public via a dir...

So, if you're buying $25 of cryptocurrency, you'll probably pay a fixed fee of $1.99 plus $0.12 in the spread—totalling $2.11, or around 8.4%.

On the other hand, the app is very easy to use and it has an excellent design. It's very simple to interact with and cuts out the confusing aspects of blockchain technology. It also has an Earn section where you can learn about the various coins it has on offer and get rewarded with some of those coins—making back some of those pesky fees.

Coinbase Pro for advanced trading

Coinbase Pro turns this crypto experience up a few notches. Unlike Coinbase's main app, this product is an advanced trading platform suitable for retail and institutional investors alike.

Coinbase Pro lists over 43 cryptocurrencies over 125 trading pairs and the ability to view historical trading data and put on “limit” orders—a feature that allows users to specify exactly what price they want to buy or sell a coin at. There’s also an API key offered for algorithmic traders to build their own automated trading systems.

Pro has lower fees compared to Coinbase and is one of the world’s most liquid crypto exchanges. It is typically cheaper to send fiat money into Coinbase Pro and buy using its platform than it is to use Coinbase's main app. But, it's a bit more technical because you have to know how to make trades—and it's easy to make mistakes if you don't know what you're doing.

You can also send your funds between Coinbase's main app and Coinbase Pro very easily and for free. You simply go to deposit or withdraw funds, select your Coinbase amount and choose how much you want to transfer between them. This means you can buy cryptocurrency on Coinbase Pro and transfer it to Coinbase, if you want your funds to sit in the more user-friendly wallet.

The pro who runs Coinbase Pro

The view from Coinbase’s new offices in San Francisco’s Financial District is pretty sweet. Even in a city known for its beauty, the panorama of the Bay from the company cafeteria on the 18th floor is gasp inducing. The view inside Coinbase, the largest crypto exchange in the United States, is almost as rosy these days. It’s valued at $8 billion following $525 million in investments from a who’s who of venture capital, including Andreessen Horowitz, Greylock Partners, Y Combinator and Tiger Glob...

Over $9 billion worth of crypto traded on the exchange yesterday, as per markets tool CoinGecko, meaning users have a regulated, safe, and highly-liquid entryway into the crypto market.

Coinbase Wallet: for crypto lovers

Coinbase Wallet is another wallet that does one thing differently. Instead of Coinbase looking after your cryptocurrency on your behalf, Coinbase Wallet lets you actually possess your own coins.

This is one of the cool things about cryptocurrency, you can actually own it—a bit like having dollars stuffed in your wallet. Every cryptocurrency is controlled by one thing, a private key, and this is a long string of alphanumeric digits that effectively act as your password, enabling you to spend your coins. You can also store this private key as a seed phrase, or a list of 12-24 words.

Coinbase to Go Public With Direct Listing, Not IPO

San Francisco-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase today announced plans to go public via a direct listing. The company, which first announced plans to become a publicly traded company last month, shared the news in a blog post: "Coinbase Global, Inc. today announced its intent to become a publicly-traded company pursuant to a proposed direct listing of its Class A common stock. Such proposed listing is expected to be pursuant to a registration statement on Form S-1 with the Securities and Exc...

The good thing about this is it means you are in control of your own money, you look after it and you can do whatever you want with it. The drawbacks are that if you make a mistake, you could lose your money. For example, if you don't keep a safe record of your seed phrase and you lose your phone, you would lose your funds. So, there are risks.

Coinbase Wallet lets you store Bitcoin and Ethereum, as well as all ERC20 tokens (or tokens issued on Ethereum) and crypto-collectibles conforming to the ERC721 token standard (such as digital art or NFTs issued on Ethereum).

So there’s why Coinbase offers three retail-focused platforms. They are all entryways for new users into the burgeoning crypto market, but offer different products based on each user’s individual needs and privacy requirements.