Coinbase Vs Robinhood: Which Exchange Should You Choose?

Coinbase is one of the biggest crypto exchanges with the most daily transactions in the world. The exchange was founded in 2012 by Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehsam. 

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About Coinbase was the first cryptocurrency exchange to be regulatory approved by the US and have always focused on performing services in a legal manner.Robinhood has been a giant in the US traditional finance space for the ease of investment of stocks.
Rating
Cheaper Fees
Payment Methods
Direct Deposit
Credit Card
PayPal
Pay ID
Poli
Features
Beginner Friendly
Mobile App
Cold Storage
2-Factor
Currencies Accepted US, EU, UK, CA/SGUSD

Coinbase

Pros

  • Coinbase has a smooth interface for anyone to interact with.
  • Coinbase offers insurance on their funds in the event Coinbase does get hacked.

Cons

  • Coinbase is expensive in fees compared to other global exchanges.

Coinbase was the first cryptocurrency exchange to be regulatory approved by the US and have always focused on performing services in a legal manner. So Coinbase is focused on the ease of use for anyone to exchange fiat for the cryptocurrencies they offer.

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Robinhood

Pros

  • Robinhood has been exploding in growth with the rise of traditional stock investments.

Cons

  • Robinhood however also comes from the traditional system of long deposit and withdrawal times and limited coin listings.


Robinhood has been a giant in the US traditional finance space for the ease of investment of stocks. They were first founded in 2013 by Vladimir Tenev and Baiju Bhatt and the crypto exchange function was launched in 2018.

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Coinbase vs Robinhood: Exchange Comparison

Fiat currencies accepted:

Coinbase offers support for over 100+ countries and allows them to use their own native currency. This offers for global usage for almost anyone in the world if you want to get into cryptocurrency investing or trading.

As Robinhood is only available for US citizens, they will accept US dollars only for any cryptocurrency coins they have listed on their platform.

🏆 Winner: Coinbase

For new and pro investors, Coinbase offers to support over 100+ countries’ native currencies.

Cryptocurrencies accepted:

Coinbase continually adds new coins when they deem them fit. Coinbase has a strict criteria on coins and projects before deciding to list them – so with this methodology, there’s a good chance any coin you see listed on Coinbase would not be a flat out scam coin. 

The cryptocurrencies offered are the top coins you would see such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin etc, but Coinbase will tend to list top coins in other categories of Cryptocurrencies. For example, you can find the Uniswap token – the biggest decentralized exchange token. (A decentralized exchange means no central company controls it).

As of this article, coinbase offers 35 cryptocurrencies to be bought and sold. 

Robinhood offers the top coins such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin SV, Dogecoin, Litecoin and Ethereum classic. 

🏆 Winner: Coinbase

Coinbase has high standard criteria on coins and projects before deciding to list them, and their method would not be a flat-out scam coin.

Deposit methods :

Coinbase offers many countries to be able to buy Cryptocurrencies with a credit card or debit card. They also offer wire transfers too.

On Robinhood, they will only accept wire transfers and could take up to five business days to clear into your account.

🏆 Winner: Coinbase

Coinbase offers using credit or debit cards to purchase cryptocurrency in almost all global currencies.

Fees:

When you deposit fiat to buy cryptocurrencies on Coinbase, you’ll be charged a flat fee depending on the amount purchased. Coinbase has a variable fee system where the more you buy, the more you get charged.

For example, if you buy $10 worth of Bitcoin, Coinbase will charge you $1. If you buy $100, Coinbase will charge you $3.

They also charge a 0.5% trading fee whenever you decide to buy/sell crypto with your cryptocurrencies. And if you decide to withdraw, you’ll also pay a withdrawal fee. 

Robinhood’s claim to fame in the market is the fact that they offer $0 fees for any of their trades in stocks. But is this true for the cryptocurrency side of their platform? Technically speaking it is no fees, but Robinhood may have slightly higher spreads when compared to global cryptocurrency exchange prices – meaning you may pay more for the same amount, and some of that goes back to Robinhood.

🏆 Winner: Robinhood

Robinhood’s claim to fame in the market is the fact that they offer $0 fees for any of their trades in stocks.

Security features:

Coinbase has tight security regulation as they only store 2% of their entire cryptocurrency assets online. The other 98% of all their customer’s funds are held in an offline cold storage. What this means for you is if hackers want to steal from Coinbase directly, they would not have a great time trying as none of your funds are even connected to the internet. 

Robinhood implements cold storage for a majority of the crypto funds. They also routinely review their code by their security team and hire third-party security audit firms. Robinhood however does not offer insurance of funds and have had a few accounts hacked in the past.

🏆 Winner: Coinbase

Coinbase has tight security regulations as 98% of its funds are secured in offline cold storage.

Regulation compliance:

Coinbase was the first crypto exchange to be regulated with the US on anti-money laundering and Know Your Customer (KYC) rules. So, everything they do is kept in line with the law the same way as many other financial services outside of cryptocurrencies. 

Robinhood is in compliance with all the anti-money laundering and securities laws of the US and they are also registered with FINCEN.

🏆 Winner: Coinbase

Coinbase was the first crypto exchange to be regulated with the US on anti-money laundering and everything they do is kept in line with the law like other financial services outside of cryptocurrencies.

Customer service:

Coinbase’s customer services can be a mixed bag from users. Although their FAQ’s section and articles answering many problems can be vast, many users might have unique problems. 

So you could submit a ticket to Coinbase and get that answered for you in 48-72 hours when you need. 

However, feedback from users has not been too great for Coinbase. Seems as if Coinbase will solve the problem on the surface level but might not be too willing to dig deep into it. Currently, they are rated ‘F’ on the Better Business Bureau for customer service.

Robinhood does have a support email for users to contact. They also have a twitter account for questions where you could tag them with your query. However, it seems as though users have gotten answers where it doesn’t exactly solve their problem. But overall users seem to be happy about the level of customer service they received. 

🏆 Winner: Robinhood

Overall users of Robinhood’s claim to be happy about the level of customer service they received.

Mobile functionality/mobile app:

Coinbase has a mobile app available on both Google play store and App store. It’s got a great and simple User interface and experience to interact with.

Robinhood has an extremely interacting, simple app available on both Google play store and App store. They have implemented many features in the app to help ease the experience for new investors and make it easy to get started.

🏆 Winner: Robinhood

Robinhood’s has an interactive and easy-to-use app for new investors and is available on both Google play store and App store.

Pros and Cons of Coinbase

Coinbase has a smooth interface for anyone to interact with. They are also well regulated by US laws and operate on the same standards as huge financial organizations. 

Coinbase offers investors insurance on their funds in the event Coinbase does get hacked by either outside sources or employee theft, they will refund funds to those who lost it. 

As for the cons, Coinbase is expensive in fees compared to other global exchanges. Coinbase also has an issue of having the ability to stop transacting and close users’ accounts anytime if they deem what the user is spending it on is unlawful. They will give you a refund but that may cost you if you did not want to sell at that time. 

Pros and Cons of Robinhood

Robinhood has been exploding in growth with the rise of traditional stock investments. And the pros of which compared to cryptocurrency only exchanges is the regulation and compliance with US laws. The $0 trade fees are also rare in the crypto industry to have.

The cons of Robinhood however also comes from the traditional system of long deposit and withdrawal times and limited coin listings.

Overall winner: Coinbase 🏆

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