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Coinbase Pro vs. Binance: An Overview

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Coinbase Pro vs. Binance Binance vs Coinbase

Is CoinSpot better than Coinbase?

If you are already a crypto trader, potential trader or just a crypto follower, certainly you are more than aware of the Coinbase Pro vs. Binance debate—as they’re two of the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world. Presently, the global crypto market is worth over $250 billion, and quite a large part of the market is covered by these two platforms, which shows their significance in the crypto industry.

The two platforms exist to serve crypto traders both experienced and those who are new to the craft as they take their first steps into the crypto trading world.

In this article, we’ll compare both exchanges using many factors, namely, currencies accepted, fees charged, customer support, security, etc. But before that, let’s have a brief overview of both platforms. Let’s get into this Coinbase Pro vs. Binance comparison.

Coinbase Pro vs. Binance: Overview

Binance

Binance exchange was founded in 2017 by Changpeng Zhao and Yi He. The company is headquartered in Malta, and also, it has offices in Taiwan, Japan, and China. Both founders started their crypto careers at the OKCoin exchange.

Binance logo and motto

The exchange is a crypto-to-crypto exchange, meaning that it connects buyers with sellers for crypto trading. It also has its own cryptocurrency called Binance Coin (BNB). The platform managed to raise $15 million through an ICO in July 2017.

It’s well known for giving away cool prizes to its top traders. In the past, prices have included MacBooks, iPhones, and a Mercedes-Benz. At present, the team at Binance is looking for partners to form a billion dollar investment fund together.

Nowadays, Binance became one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world. Over the last years, it was able to surpass Coinbase in terms of how many trading pairs it offers. At the same time, Binance has added a wide range of services for users. 

Binance Services

This is the list of services added by Binance that users can enjoy at any time. 

Several Fiat Currencies Supported

Users can trade with a wide range of fiat currencies. While in the early days of Bitcoin it was very difficult for investors to get access to the crypto market with fiat currencies, things became easier nowadays. 

Binance offers support to dozens of fiat currencies from all over the world. That means that you can get access to your favourite virtual currencies using your local currency. 

A Wide Range of Payment Methods

At the same time, depending on where you are located, Binance is offering a large range of payment methods. In this way, users do not have to be worried about not having a payment method available to deposit funds. 

This is one of the main benefits of Binance. 

Binance Futures

The Binance cryptocurrency exchange is also offering cryptocurrency futures. Advanced traders can get access to quarterly futures or perpetual contracts that allow them to improve their trading strategies. 

Coinbase preferred to focus on spot trading and just a few other solutions. Nonetheless, they are focusing on onboarding larger investors. 

Binance DeFi

Binance has also added several features in order to grant access to its community to several Decentralized Finance (DeFi) solutions. The DeFi market has been growing over the last years and Binance worked as a bridge between newcomers and DeFi applications and services. For a good Coinbase Pro vs. Binance comparison, we should definitely take into consideration this topic. 

Binance Smart Chain

Binance, compared to Coinbase, was able to build a large ecosystem of solutions, projects and initiatives. It fastly evolved from a simple spot exchange to one of the largest participants in the cryptocurrency market. 

At the moment, there are dozens of projects that are working on top of the Binance Smart Chain and offering DeFi solutions to users. 

Binance Coin (BNB)

Binance has also released its own digital currency called Binance Coin (BNB). Coinbase didn’t move in this direction and didn’t release any coin. Binance Coin is now the third-largest cryptocurrency in the world after Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH).

 

Coinbase Pro

Trading cryptocurrencies as a beginner can be scary—that’s the main reason why Coinbase was established. The platform is user-friendly and straightforward. Most traders use this platform when trading digital currencies as beginners, but it charges a fee for the same.

coinbase exchange cryptocurrencies

Founded in 2012 by Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam, the company’s headquarter is based in San Francisco, California.

In 2017, Coinbase became a unicorn making it the first crypto exchange to achieve a $1 billion valuation.

Additionally, Brian Armstrong has been ranked number 10 on the Forbes list of the most influential young people in the business.

Coinbase Pro was launched in 2015, by Coinbase, and it is mainly meant for experienced traders. This is a fantastic alternative for more experienced traders. Transactions on the platform are instant and less costly. However, if you learn this trick, you don’t have to pay any transaction fee on the platform.

Coinbase is one of the most respected and recognized cryptocurrency exchanges all over the world. The platform has been expanding throughout the last years and it is now one of the best options for large investors to get access to the crypto market. 

Although it didn’t expand in the same direction as Binance, it has allowed large companies to get access to the crypto market. Moreover, it has also launched an Initial Public Offering (IPO) in the United States under the ticker $COIN. 

Coinbase Public Offering (IPO)

Coinbase has launched an Initial Public Offering (IPO) during the month of April 2021. The company was able to attract a large number of investors. The firm became one of the largest in the world in terms of market valuation and it is now being traded on the NASDAQ exchange under the ticker $COIN. 

Institutional Solutions

Coinbase does not only offer services to retail users, but it has also been welcoming institutional players. Rather than focusing on making it easier for retail investors to get access to DeFi and other solutions, the platform was able to onboard institutional players such as companies. 

Due to this reason, we have seen during the bull market of 2020 how firms were purchasing large amounts of BTC and withdrawing them from the platform. Coinbase is now working as a proxy to measure the interest that institutional investors have in Bitcoin and digital assets. 

Staking Solutions

Although Coinbase preferred to focus on institutions, it has also added some additional features for retail users. One of the things that it is now offering to users is the staking platform. Coinbase is supporting staking solutions for those users that have coins that can be staked such as Tezos (XTZ).  

In this Coinbase Pro vs. Binance comparison we consider that both platforms have great solutions for users in terms of staking

Binance is offering a similar solution in this case.

 

Coinbase Pro vs. Binance: How They Compare

Fee Structure

There are three types of fees paid while trading on exchange platforms; withdrawal fee, trading fee, and deposit fee.

Binance offers its services at a very low rate of fees. Interestingly, for all trades, it charges only a 0.1% fee on the exchange. Moreover, Binance doesn’t charge any fee for deposits or withdrawals.

In contrast, Coinbase Pro also offers low fees even though they can be a little bit high, they range between 0.1% and 0.25%, for take traders, and it offers zero fees for maker traders. However, you don’t have to pay the trading fees as long as you understand what you are doing. The platform allows its traders to place different orders, namely, limit orders, a stop-limit order, and a market order.

Currency Services

Binance does not offer fiat trading. Nonetheless, it provides a vast array of cryptocurrencies that can be traded against each other compared to Coinbase Pro. Some of the crypto coins supported on the exchange include EOS, Cardano, NEO, Lisk, Steem, Gifto, Bitcoin, USDT, Ethereum, Binance Coin, and many more.

On the other hand, Coinbase Pro offers a wide range of fiat and crypto pairs for Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, XRP, ZRX, ETC, BAT, MANA, LOOM, DNT, and CVC. Even though the exchange is well known for its small currency portfolio, there are plans to expand its altcoin pool in the future. Interestingly, the exchange added eight new coins in 2018.

In this case, the Coinbase Pro vs. Binance difference relies on how many digital assets are offered by Binance.

Security

Both exchanges use two-factor authentication to protect user accounts. This is a system where each account has two kinds of passwords. , and the second is sent to the user’s mobile phone or created by an App like Google Authenticator.

Hackers with code looking for Bitcoin Ransom

It’s not clear how Binance manages its customer’s money, and this worries many customers. As recently as June 2018, the platform’s users reported missing funds following a planned system upgrade. Binance was forced to apologize and offered 70% discounts on trading fees for the trouble the update caused.

In March last year, hackers stole user login details and tried to rob the exchange. The system detected the hack and stopped it. No users lost funds, and the hackers’ funds were donated to charity.

However, on May 7, 2019, the exchange was targeted again and this time lost 7,074 Bitcoin currently worth around $54 million.

In the exception of the latest breach, the platform’s security team has been praised for protecting its users’ money from hackers.

Coinbase Pro is a regulated firm where customer’s funds are insured by FDCI, while 98% of crypto funds are stored in cold storage.

The platform has not been hacked or in any way endangered by a malicious outside player.

All in all, both platforms have better security records than most other exchanges, but Coinbase Pro is better as it is more open and honest about where it stores user funds.

It is worth taking into consideration that Binance has been attacked and lost around $40 million in cryptocurrencies. However, the exchange has created a fund to re-pay investors and those users that were affected by the attack. 

Coinbase, instead, has never been attacked until now. This shows the platform is certainly protecting users from attacks and malicious parties. If you want a secure exchange to leave your coins and to trade virtual currencies, Coinbase is certainly the best solution in the market.

This is one of the most important things to take into consideration about Coinbase Pro vs. Binance.

Customer Support

Many exchanges have been criticized for having poor customer service. Unfortunately, Coinbase Pro and Binance need to improve in this area too. Neither platform has a live-chat support option on its home site. Both exchanges prefer communication with their customers by email. Although they offer “SupportBot” services for general inquiries.

Binance customer support service can be slow when the exchange is busy, but it’s available in four different languages (English, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese), so at least they’re trying.

Coinbase Pro takes 2-3 days to reply to email queries from customers. The exchange has a detailed FAQs section, which many traders find useful. Additionally, it has a telephone helpline, but it’s only based in the U.S., thus difficult for international users to access.

Customer support is one of the issues affecting these two exchanges. In general, the crypto market is full of complaints from users that they cannot get access to customer support.

User Friendliness

Coinbase Pro offers a somewhat more compact interface, which groups the price chart, buy/sell buttons, order books, and order, and trade history all in one page.

This allows users to analyze data quickly without having to switch away to another screen. The support section does show users how to make almost instant wire transfers. You can transfer funds from a Coinbase account for free. As for withdrawals, there’s a limit of $10,000 per day on those.

Binance has two user settings: basic and advanced. Basic is more advanced for beginners. However, it offers more experienced traders all the information and features they need in a simple, clear way.

Final Verdict – Coinbase Pro vs. Binance

Trading digital currencies for beginners can be scary, frustrating, and expensive. As such, it is vital to pick the right exchange. 

Binance and Coinbase Pro are both excellent choices for more experienced traders, but we recommend you start with Coinbase Pro then move to Binance. We hope this Coinbase Pro vs. Binance comparison helped you understand how these platforms work. 

Note: Binance are offering 20% OFF all trading fees if you sign up using this link today!

All in all, both exchanges are great, and they are among the best in the industry. In the Coinbase Pro vs. Binance debate, both can be winners!

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