Coinbase

Started in 2012, Coinbase, the largest centralized cryptocurrency exchange (CEX) in the U.S., is based in San Francisco, California.

Coinbase operates in 100 countries around the world with 4,900 employees. It has almost 100m verified users and 13,000 institutions using its services.

For individual retail traders, Coinbase offers a trading platform and personal desktop wallet, mobile wallet, a marketplace to create, buy and sell NFTs, earning free cryptocurrencies as part of their learning initiative, bitcoin-collateralized personal loans of up to $1M USD, and their crypto credit card that earns crypto rewards.

Coinbase offers retail and institutional trading, as well as custodial services. Its custody services are regulated out of the state of New York.

It provides segregated cold storage, insurance, and audited financial and security controls on its custody services.

Coinbase is known for its simple and user-friendly interface, strong security features, low trading fees, and the ability to use an advanced trading interface if desired.

Coinbase offers roughly 197 coins for trading, in 500+ different markets.

As the largest exchange in the U.S., Coinbase trading volume is often analyzed and thought of as a barometer or gauge for the health of the overall U.S. crypto market.

Changes in trading volume often lead to broader crypto market sentiment following suit.

Brian Armstrong is the co-founder and CEO of Coinbase.

Related Terms

Brian Armstrong

Brian Armstrong is the co-founder and CEO of Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States. Armstrong lead Coinbase to go public on the Nasdaq on April 13, 2021.

Wallet

Made up of a unique public address called your public key (similar to your bank account number) that you can share with the world, your friends, family, and other businesses and companies that you trust, to send and receive digital assets. A wallet also stores a private key (much like the PIN that you use to access your bank account at the ATM), which, when combined with the public key, confirms ownership of the wallet, and allows you as the wallet owner to view the digital record of your wallet transactions, and allows you to perform actions such as buying, selling, withdrawing, and swapping funds.

Desktop Wallet

A common type of crypto wallet used to securely store and manage your private keys on a computer hard drive. They’re considered more secure than web-based wallets, since you can only access them from wherever your computer is located, and again, you control your private keys.

Software Wallet

A form of cryptocurrency wallet that’s based on software, so installed as a mobile app or accessed via a website, or installed as software on a desktop or laptop computer. The software itself stores your private keys that are used to access your cryptocurrency funds.

Caroline Ellison

A former math nerd and Standford University graduate, Ellison would go on to run billion-dollar cryptocurrency hedge fund Alameda Research as CEO. Recruited by Sam Bankman-Fried, Ellison was a member of the core team that ran both Alameda Research and FTX, the world’s 5th largest cryptocurrency and derivatives exchange before its Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in November 2022.