Coinbase Pro Review – Is This the Best Place to Trade Cryptocurrencies?

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By Aleksei Skokov

Last Updated

Coinbase Pro Review

Advertising Disclosure

Coinbase Pro Review

  • Commissions & Fees
  • Customer Service
  • Tools and Features
  • Trustworthiness
4

Summary

Coinbase Pro is a trusted trading platform aimed at professional cryptocurrency traders. With tools and features such as their digital assets, wallet balance, and more could Coinbase Pro be right for you? Before you buy, make sure you know what you’re getting. We’ve done the research, now read our thorough review of Coinbase Pro.

Pros

  • Intuitive interface
  • Low fees and transparent pricing
  • Insurance for U.S. residents
  • Fast deposits and withdrawals
  • Two-factor authentication 

Cons

  • Slow customer support
  • Not many tradable cryptocurrencies
  • No Insurance outside of U.S.
  • Limited functionality for Technical Analysis

What is Coinbase Pro?

Coinbase Pro Logo

Coinbase Pro (formerly known as GDAX) is a trading platform, which provides individuals with the ability to trade with a wide range of digital assets, and is primarily targeted at professional crypto traders. Even though every Coinbase user can use Coinbase Pro, it is not meant for beginners. Coinbase Pro is a more sophisticated version of Coinbase, with added features, more detailed charts and graphs and added trading options, that many traders will find appealing.

According to CoinMarketCap, by February 2019 Coinbase Pro was the second-largest U.S. based cryptocurrency exchange.

Coinbase was founded by Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam all the way back in 2012, by 2015 Coinbase launched their professional trading platform by the name GDAX. After 3 years of successful operations and impressive growth, Coinbase made an announcement about elimination of the GDAX brand and introduction of Coinbase Pro. 

Coinbase Pro prides itself on being the most trusted and secure trading platform, they maintain 98% or more of customers’ digital assets in cold storage, with the rest of digital assets in secure online servers to serve the liquidity needs of all the customers. Furthermore, all USD balances are covered by FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) insurance, up to a maximum of $250,000 per individual.

Who is able to use Coinbase Pro?

Coinbase Pro is meant for individual traders only, not institutional clients; institutional clients can work with Coinbase Prime, which is specifically designed to trade with business funds and has some additional features, that only institutional clients have access to.

As long as an individual is located in one of the supported geographical areas, they can easily sign up for an account with Coinbase Pro. Due to quick application processing and approval times, most individuals can begin trading during the same day. Any individual with an existing Coinbase account can instantly merge their existing account with Coinbase Pro and start trading on a professional platform.

It is important to outline that individuals residing in Australia, Canada and Singapore are not able to have access to fiat, financial operations of individuals residing in those countries are currently limited to digital assets only.

Residents of U.S., and most of EU countries are able to access all the facilities of Coinbase Pro, only limitation is the state of Hawaii.

Some sources claim that Coinbase Pro does not facilitate residents of Wyoming – this is inaccurate and outdated information. As of August 2018 Coinbase renewed their money transmitter license in Wyoming, allowing all Wyoming residents to use Coinbase Pro services to full extent.

Proof of authenticity of our information:  https://blog.coinbase.com/coinbase-is-coming-back-to-wyoming-9d0f75148f8b 

Supported European Countries

AndorraGreeceMalta
AustriaGuernseyMonaco
BelgiumHungaryNetherlands
BulgariaIcelandNorway
CroatiaIrelandPoland
CyprusIsle of ManPortugal
CzechiaItalySan Marino
DenmarkJerseySlovakia
EstoniaLatviaSlovenia
FinlandLiechtensteinSpain
FranceLithuaniaSweden
GermanyLuxemborgSwitzerland

Up to date list of all supported locations and trading pairs is available from Coinbase Pro directly, by following this link: https://support.pro.coinbase.com/customer/en/portal/articles/2945308-locations-and-trading-pairs

Account verification and approval

Registration as well as an ‘upgrade’ from Coinbase are structured very well; Individuals with Coinbase accounts can start trading with Pro platform instantly and new members are usually able to start trading within the same day.

Existing Coinbase Account

Individuals with existing Coinbase accounts can easily shift towards Coinbase Pro, the procedure is very straightforward and swift. Authorisation of Coinbase Pro account is done through Coinbase and is a three-step process:

Coinbase Pro Login

1. Navigate to pro.coinbase.com and click ‘Log In’ in the top-right corner of the site.

Coinbase Pro Authorization

2. Authorise with your Coinbase account credentials

Coinbase Pro Tfa

3. Pass the 2-Step Verification by entering the code which Coinbase sends

!NB: Since Coinbase used to allow accounts without immediate address verification, those account holders will be required to upload a fresh ‘Proof of Address’ document, before being granted access to the platform.

New Coinbase Account

Coinbase Pro is a serious institution, therefore, each and every individual has to verify own account before being able to trade. In order to complete the verification process and use Pro trading platform, it is necessary to upload ID and Proof of Address (Residency). Depending on individual’s location additional requirements might are applicable. 

Coinbase Pro Registration

1. Individuals are required to fill out general information, which is to be used to access the account.

Coinbase Pro Mobile

2. Every applicant will have to provide a mobile number in order to receive and later verify a code sent by Coinbase Pro, this phone number will later be used for Two-Factor Verification.

Coinbase Pro Code

3. Verification code from Coinbase Pro usually arrives within seconds, if the code did not arrive, it is possible to request another one, or use a different number,

Coinbase Pro Form

4. Additional information about the applicant and residency are requested. Bear in mind that the country will be selected based on the IP location, individuals using VPN or proxies, might need to disable them, to avoid complications.

Coinbase Pro Id

5. Once all the information is provided, one of the last steps is to provide the ID and Proof of Address documents. It is important to note that, unless you have a Driver’s License, National Identity Card, or passport, verification will not be possible. Coinbase Pro does not accept any other form of ID verification.

Coinbase Pro Id Method

6. In order to upload an ID, Coinbase Pro offers 3 options – Webcam, Mobile Camera or direct Upload

7. Same as above, similar method of Address Verification. Address verification document has to be recent and not older than 3 months since the date of issue.

Most applications are processed within a span of 12 hours, meaning that, if the documents were provided in the morning, by the evening time Coinbase Pro will grant access to the platform.

Further details about verification process are available directly from Coinbase Pro: https://support.coinbase.com/customer/en/portal/articles/1220621-identity-verification?b_id=13521 

Get $200 in Crypto

Get $200 in Crypto when you sign up with Coinbase Pro!

Location-based Requirements

EU, Australian, Canadian and Singaporean customers: Recent changes require two different forms of supported IDs. If an individual is verifying IDs from two different countries, it is necessary to contact customer support in order to initiate a manual review of provided documents.

U.S. and UK residents  are required to complete an ID verification procedure, as well as an ID verification quiz. Furthermore, U.S. residents have to provide last 4 digits of their Social Security Number.

Coinbase takes privacy and security very seriously, which is why sometimes certain applicants might have more steps during verification than others. 

Further informations about verifications and troubleshooting of verification procedures are available here: https://support.pro.coinbase.com/customer/en/portal/articles/2945323-verifying-your-identity

Coinbase Pro Trading Platform

Coinbase Pro Interface

Coinbase Pro made a good effort with interface design, it is straightforward, intuitive and allows access to all the necessary features without a need to click around too many times.

The interface is available in 3 colour schemes. 

  • ’Classic’ is a dark interface with some greys, very soft on the eyes, perfect during low light conditions.
  • ‘Dark’ is a high contrast version of ‘Classic’ and is perfect for night-time. 
  • ‘Light’ which is a very bright colour scheme, that allows traders to work during very bright light conditions.

Trading Interface allows instant overview of the market selection, order form, real-time order book, trading history, open orders, balances of selected assets, and a price chart.

Market Selection

Coinbase Pro Market Selection

It is the very first option in the top-left corner, which allows traders to choose cryptocurrency pairs for trading and analysis. Market selection allows to see all assets at once or individually, based on a specific asset, such as EUR, USDC, BTC, DAI and ETH.

Wallet Balance

Coinbase Pro Wallet

Located right under the Market Selection dropdown menu, it displays trader’s current balance for the asset pairs, which are currently chosen. Wallet also allows instant access to withdrawal and deposit facilities.

Order Form

Coinbase Pro Order Form

The most important feature of all – allows you to perform various operations on the market, we will cover the Order Form separately later in this article.

Order Book

Next column of the interface is the Order Book, it displays market size, price in the quote currency**, size of trader’s current position at that specific price-level and the spread in quote currency.

Coinbase Pro Order Book

**A quote currency is the second currency (asset) that appears in a pair quotation. The first quoted currency is called a base currency.

Price Chart

The widest column of the platform is dedicated to the price chart. The price chart can be presented as a Candlestick Chart or a Line Chart, traders have the freedom to choose their preferred one. The chart allows to choose from 6 different time-frames – 1M, 5M, 15M, 1H, 6H and Daily, furthermore on the bottom of the chart traders can see trading volumes during different times.

Coinbase Pro Chart

As an additional feature, it is possible to add an overlay of Exponential Moving Averages on the chart. Currently the overlay features are limited to two exponential moving averages with periods of 12 and 26. There is a deep reason why EMA 12 and EMA 26 were specifically chosen by Coinbase Pro, but let us simply say that, they are the most popular ones in Technical Analysis. If you would like to know more about the moving averages, and the history behind 12 and 26 exponential moving averages, we are going to provide you with the following link: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/e/ema.asp

Coinbase Pro Market Depth

Below the chart is the Depth of Market indicator, which displays volumes on the market levels closest to the current average price. Hovering over any point on the market depth indicator allows to see the available volume of base asset and the price for it in quote currency.

Open Orders

Coinbase Pro Open Orders

Right under the Market Depth indicator are open orders, which display currently open orders, with all the details about the order.

Coinbase Pro Fills

Once the order is filled, it can be located under the ‘Fills’ tab – which consequently changes the Open Orders section into Filled Orders.

Trade History

Coinbase Pro Trade History

Trade displays the the list of orders that have been executed recently.

Trading – Order Form

Coinbase Pro allows placing market orders, which are to be filled at the nearest available price-level, as well as placing Limit and Stop orders, which are to be filled only when the price reaches a desired mark.

A quick recap from Coinbase Pro directly:

  • A market order will execute immediately at the current market price
  • A stop order lets you specify the price at which the order should be executed and is useful for stop loss and similar strategies.
  • A limit order lets you set your own price, as well as set some advanced order execution options.

Order Placement

Coinbase Pro Order Placement1

Process cannot not be any easier – trader has to chose the market from ‘Market Selection’ dropdown menu

Coinbase Pro Order Placement2

Once the Market has been selected, available operational balances of all tradable assets will become visible in the Wallet Balance. As long as both assets are available, trading in both directions will be available.

Regardless of the order type chosen, the platform will always display the transaction fee before the order is placed.

Market Orders

Coinbase Pro Order Placement3

In order to make a market order, trader simply needs to choose the direction and amount (size) of the trade, and as long as it seems satisfactory – place the order for filling.

Coinbase Pro Order Placement4

Simple as that, and as soon as the order is filled, it will appear in the ‘Fills’ tab of the Orders section

Traders have to be very careful with market orders, because once it is placed, it can no longer be cancelled. Moreover, big market orders may be partially filled at different price levels, filling of an order in full depends on the available liquidity!

Limit Orders

Coinbase Pro Order Placement5

Limit orders are an advance type of orders, some Forex and Stock brokers are very familiar with those type of orders. However, not even every Forex platform would allow the customisation options provided by Coinbase Pro platform.

Due to advance nature of Limit Orders, we have taken the information about them straight from Coinbase Pro, with all the fee references in the end of Limit Orders part.

Post Only Limit Order will ensure that your limit order is posted to the order book and sits on the order book to be charged a Maker Fees if it is filled. If any part of the order would execute immediately due to its price when arriving at the matching engine, the entire order will be rejected. This is useful for ensuring that an order is not subject to Taker Fees, if desired.

If you do not enable Post Only, any part of an order that is at a price that would execute immediately, will execute immediately and be charged Taker Fees; any remainder of the order will remain on the order book and will be charged Maker Fees if filled.

Allow Taker will allow the order to be executed regardless of whether it crosses the spread to fill an existing order. If any part of the order crosses the spread, that portion will be assessed according to the taker fee rate.

Good ‘Til Canceled (GTC) – This order will be placed on the order book and remain valid until you cancel it.

Immediate or Cancel (IOC) – This order will be placed and if it is not immediately filled, it will automatically be cancelled and removed from the order book.

Fill or Kill (FOK) – This order will only complete if the entire amount can be matched. Partial matches are not filled with this order type and will not execute.

Time in force policies provide guarantees about the lifetime of an order. These types of orders provide advanced options you may be familiar with when trading traditional assets.

Order Fees: https://support.pro.coinbase.com/customer/portal/articles/2945310

Stop Orders

Coinbase Pro Order Placement6

Stop orders are designed to allow traders to buy or sell when the price reaches a specified value. This type of order is commonly used as a precautionary order, to limit losses, however, it is even more useful to open orders at the desired price, without monitoring the price in front of the platform.

Trading Fees

Coinbase Pro has very competitive fee structure which is based on the size of pricing tier. 

Pricing TierTaker FeeMaker Fee
<$100K0.25%0.15%
100K – 1M0.20%0.10%
1- 10M0.18%0.08%
10 -50M0.15%0.05%
50 – 100M0.10%0.00%
100 – 300M0.08%0.00%
300 – 500M0.07%0.00%
500M – 1B0.06%0.00%
$1B+0.05%0.00%

Clarification of Chargeable Fees

  • Whenever an order is placed at a market price, the trader is considered a Taker.
  • If the order is not filled immediately, it will go into the order book and will be filled as soon as there is another client, who places a matching order. In this case trader who initially placed an order is considered a Maker.
  • If the order gets partially filled immediately, a Taker fee is paid for the filled volume of the order, the remainder of the order will be filled at a Maker’s fee.

Deposits and Withdrawals

Coinbase Pro is very flexible when it comes to deposits and withdrawals, they multiple, convenient ways to withdraw and deposit variety of crypto and fiat currencies, as well as instant internal transfers between Coinbase Pro and Coinbase accounts.

Deposits

Cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin, Ether, XRP, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, EOS, Stellar, Tezos, Ether Classic, Maker, Zcash, Chainlink, Basic Attention Token, REP, 0x, Algorand, Golem, Decentraland, Loom Network, Civic & district0x.

Fiat and Stable Coins: EUR, USD, GBP, USD Coin & Dai. (EUR, USD and GBP are region-based)

Coinbase Pro Deposit

Coinbase Pro clients can fund their accounts by sending digital currency from another exchange or wallet provider. In order to fund an account with any available cryptocurrency, client has to click on the ‘Deposit’ button in the ‘Wallet Balance’ pane and choose, which cryptocurrency to use for deposit.

Once deposit pop-up opens, it is necessary to choose a desired deposit method and make a transfer to the wallet address provided by Coinbase Pro.

Coinbase Pro Deposit Btc

Deposit processing times depend on the cryptocurrency, but are instantly displayed once the client chooses a deposit method.

Deposits in Fiat are made via bank transfers, in most regions clients are able to make deposits into their local banks, if Coinbase Pro doesn’t have an account with a local bank, the closest bank will be provided as an option.

Deposit Fees

Digital AssetsFree
ACHFree
Wire (USD)$10 USD
SEPA (EUR)€0.15 EUR
Swift (GBPFree

Besides reasonable deposit fees, Coinbase Pro does not impose and fees for holding client funds, or inactivity fees. This means that clients are able to hold their funds with Coinbase Pro, as long as the company is operational.

Withdrawals

Withdrawals are available with all the same methods, as Deposits, meaning that the clients are able to transfer their funds out into crypto wallets, other exchanges or verified bank accounts in fiat.

Cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin, Ether, XRP, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, EOS, Stellar, Tezos, Ether Classic, Maker, Zcash, Chainlink, Basic Attention Token, REP, 0x, Algorand, Golem, Decentraland, Loom Network, Civic & district0x.

Fiat and Stable Coins: EUR, USD, GBP, USD Coin & Dai. (EUR, USD and GBP are region-based)

Coinbase Pro Withdrawal

In order to initiate a withdrawal, it is necessary to click on ‘Withdraw’ button in the ‘Wallet Balance’ pane.

Coinbase Pro Withdraw Btc

One pop-up with withdrawal options appears, traders are free to choose any suitable method to get their funds out of Coinbase Pro.

In case with Bank withdrawals, all the verified bank accounts will be visible when Fiat currency is chosen as a withdrawal option.

Withdrawal Fees

Digital AssetsFree
ACHFree
Wire (USD)$25 USD
SEPA (EUR)€0.15 EUR
Swift (GBP£5 GBP

Important Note on withdrawal limits: Transfers between Pro and Coinbase count towards overall withdrawal limits for Coinbase and Coinbase Pro. Clients with high turnover should requests their limits to be increased by submitting a request here: https://pro.coinbase.com/profile/limits

Additional Functionality

Besides allowing traders access to a sophisticated online trading platform, Coinbase Pro offers two different APIs – REST and FIX. Clients can choose what is most appropriate based on their requirements.

  • REST API allows access to public market data, which can be deployed wherever client desires, as well as used for deeper market analysis, either manual or with the use of specialised software.
  • FIX API can be used to manage all trading activities – enter orders, submit cancel requests, and receive fills.

More information about Coinbase Pro APIs can be found on their website: https://docs.pro.coinbase.com

Unfortunately at this moment Coinbase Pro does not provide dedicated native Apps for their platform. On the bright-side, Coinbase has one of the most responsive trading platforms on the market, making it fully usable on mobile devices of any size, as long as they have a browser. 

Coinbase Pro Iphone Se
Coinbase Pro Iphone 8 Plus
Coinbase Pro Iphone Se Trade
Coinbase Pro Iphone 8 Plus Trade

Here an overview with ‘David and Goliath’ combination – two phones with very different dimensions:

Coinbase Pro Reviews 

Coinbase Pro is undoubtedly one of the most beloved and trusted cryptocurrency exchanges there are, the company has a strong focus on client satisfaction, security and safety of funds. 

Of course there is always room for improvement, Coinbase itself can no longer be called simply ‘a Company’, it is a corporation, with over 1,100 employees, who are providing their services to  over 13 million users across the globe. It is not an easy job to keep such an amount of clients happy. In January 2019, Coinbase even began offering tax preparation services through a partnership with Intuit’s TurboTax software.

Mostly clients complain about Customer Support, slow response times and often times about long dispute resolution processes. Quite often people seem to confuse Coinbase Pro with Coinbase, therefore some reviews of Coinbase Pro, which are available on mass-review sites can be inaccurate.

Overall, Coinbase Pro as a cryptocurrency trading platform has mostly positive reviews, average online currently stands at 4.6 out of 5. 

Coinbase itself on the other hand has significantly dropped in ratings, Trustpilot ratings of Coinbase are lower than they have ever been – 1.7 out of 5: https://www.trustpilot.com/review/coinbase.com 

Get $200 in Crypto

Get $200 in Crypto when you sign up with Coinbase Pro!

Conclusions for Coinbase Pro

For cryptocurrency enthusiasts, who are looking for a safe cryptocurrency exchange, with capital protection for U.S. residents, high liquidity, and good trading functionality – Coinbase Pro is a good choice. The trading platform is very intuitive and offers enough necessities for professionals. The fees for trading and financial operation are very good. Coinbase Pro has no hidden fees, whenever there is a fee for operation, Coinbase Pro displays it before the client confirms the operation.

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Aleksei Skokov

Aleksei Skokov has over 14 years of experience in the forex industry. He has traded forex for over 15 years and tested dozens of popular trading tools and services. Aleksei also has experience working directly with brokers. He has held roles as a fund manager, introducing broker, and COO for multiple forex brokers. His experience in the industry helped him become well-versed in forex regulations, licensing, and best practices. Aleksei shares his insights and analyses on Newton Advisor to help other traders make smarter trading decisions.

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