Bitcoin Forum

Just a few things about using Coinbase.

Coinbase is a really popular exchange which also has a wallet feature. It's trading capacities aren't open to all the countries but the wallet function is open for all. So I see many newbies keeping their coins there because opening an account is simple, nothing much to back up etc...

1: Don't use Coinbase at all
Coinbase makes it easy for transferring coins from one account to another easy. But it's usually not recommended to use Coinbase to store any coins. Even if you have 2FA on, it's still not recommended. Because generally exchanges are rather insecure comparing to other wallets like Electrum or Coinomi. It could be hacked or might also be a scam, you can't be sure. So don't store your coins there.

2: About the verification
It is recommended to not use your IDs to verify on any website. Same goes with Coinbase. Sharing your IDs could lead to an identity theft.

3: About transferring big amounts
Sometimes Coinbase assumes your account might have some unusual behavior. So it may interrupt any transaction and can even ask for confirming your identity.
Once I deposited $600+ there. When I tried to transfer the coins, they refused to process the transaction. They sent an email stating my transaction will be done in 72 hours automatically. I cancelled the transaction. But it went through when I tried to send the money from the Coinbase app. I don't know what was the difference there.

4: The app
The app is kind of insecure. Because it doesn't even require the 2FA code to send transactions. You can be easily compromised.

So don't store your hard earned/invested money in Coinbase. If you can afford, buy a hardware wallet. If you can't, use something like Electrum and store your seeds and/or passwords on paper and keep them somewhere more secure.
Good luck guys. :)

why are you targetting Coinbase? i did not use it before but as you said all of these possibilities same for all markets without DEX's. i did not see any special reason to not use coinbase.

That's mainly because Coinbase is widely used by newbies as a wallet. I'm targeting them because of this and about that app too. Not as an exchange, but as an wallet to save coins for long term. Newbies don’t generally save coins on other exchanges that much.      

The number 3 this is what I experienced today I have bitcoin stuck in my account in coinbase they said it will send after 72hrs but if I can't wait they will ask for KYC for an identity check. Well I'm waiting for my bitcoin to send to other wallets and hope after 72hrs they will send my BTC.

If not I will force to do a KYC which is I don't like honestly because even I'm verified in coinbase I think I can't still trade and exchange altcoin to bitcoin. Only US-based that I know you can trade in coinbase.

If they didn't send my BTC I will start spreading this news here about coinbase so that other users and newbie will know before they will experience the same thing.

Already veterans were/are yelling about this, not only coinbase never use any wallet which doesn't offer your private keys.

coinbase is not a wallet, its an exchange but they offer wallet as you mentioned but they have their ToS you are at risk of losing funds if you receive funds from gambling sites.

Use electrum desktop or app which is better for security and also have encryption password to restrict unauthorized logins.

How is this a few things lmao. You literally bashed and warned everyone to stop using Coinbase the very first moment you listed these few things of yours.

Yes, you don't need to use your ID. but you didn't really need to specify it to Coinbase. Literally everyone should avoid it at ANY site or exchange there is. As much as possible that is.

It does require KYC, so honestly not that surprising they wanted to check on your transaction and identity first. What I don't understand is, how did them stating that the transaction will be done in 72 hours become refusal to process the transaction? Did their site actually popped a message refusing your transaction? And then you suddenly received an email about it?

PS: I ain't defending coinbase or anything, just that OP's calls are a bit too vague and honestly, who doesn't know how these exchanges work.

Cancel the transaction and use the app to do it again. I think it'll pass through, just as mine did.

Ah, maybe they are a little vague and maybe I misinterpreted my English. And about the last line, this is meant for newbies. And I can guarantee you that there's more people who don't know how these exchanges work than you think. I see them everywhere. I just wanted to share my thoughts alongside it.

Coinbase is a type of wallet where you don't have complete control of your funds. They could decide to lock it up anytime they want and ask for a KYC ransom in order to get back your funds.

It's the first wallet i got to know when joining the crypto space. In fact i even opened up an account with them but fortunately i have never used the wallet ever.

There is one very important thing that everyone need to realize - Coinbase isn't a wallet, it's crypto trading platform which can be used as a wallet like many other exchanges.
1. As wallet, I agree. There isn't many good reasons to use Coinbase as a wallet. But as exchange, I don't see why people should avoid it. About keeping coins there - there is  same risks like on all other exchanges and wallets where you don't have full control of your crypto.
2. Well, without KYC verification you can't use most of Coinbase features. So, you have to choose, give them your personal data or simply don't use them. But other exchanges also requires KYC, so there is only few alternatives like decentralized exchanges.
3. This is normal thing because they have to follow AML regulations and have to check everything if they found your transactions suspicious. If you don't want it, simply use proper decentralized Bitcoin wallets. Because what do you expect from crypto bank?
4. I haven't tried Coinbase app for long time. But isn't there optional choice to enable 2FA before sending transaction? But maybe it's not big issue, because they ask for 2FA when you login to Coinbase app. So, it's not that easy yo access app and steal money from it.

Not a supporter of Coinbase but these problems you have mentioned are also applicable to the majority of centralized exchanges around. It's even better to pick Coinbase over those small exchanges.*. Even using the most trading platform like Binance also has some risks.

It's a general rule of thumb that when it comes to exchanges, just only use their service and not to act as a primary store wallet. We can't hide the fact that for others, especially in their supported countries, it's convenient to do buy, sell and withdrawing their funds at Coinbase so even we throw our negative experience about this exchange, others will still continue to use their service.

So for new users, always conduct research about choosing an online exchange service.


As I have mentioned, for storing purposes, don't use an online wallet. It's quite basic and even newbies nowadays know this once they study the basics. Disregarding Coinbase, there are really times we need exchange services on either buying, selling, converting BTC to fiat and withdraw. Unless you are bound to hold your coins forever until the price hits at $50,000 or $100,000, then don't use any online services.

The title should be: DON'T USE COINBASE

The things mentioned above are usual in any legit exchange. I don't see any popular and big exchange that doesn't involve on those concerns listed above.


Where did you get this idea? Electrum and Coinomi do have their own feature on which Coinbase or any exchanges didn't have. Vice-versa, Coinbase, and any exchange also have their unique feature that hardware wallets, desktop wallets don't have. Now if we plan on storing our coins for long, people already know what to do here.

Let's get straight here, what online exchange do you recommend?

I never used coinbase's services. I even don't remember ever visiting their website. However, from reviews of many members on other threads it seems that it is a reliable platform.
Their main weakness is their support team. They take too long to respond to their customers. Sometimes, they never get back to you. All you get is a message from a bot asking you to wait.
My advice is to never use an online wallet to store your coins. Not coinbase nor any other online platform.

If you have a big amount dont ever use coinbase, it very scary anytime they can disable your account and dont have control to your private keys. Better use hardware wallets or web wallet with control to your private keys. But I have tried their services with just few bucks and didnt have any problem.

Are you sure? If I cancel today do you think I can send it through the app even I newly install the app on the phone just now?
I need the bitcoin before the end of this week if I cancel today and your suggestion won't work I will wait again for another 72hrs as their slow security purposes.

Maybe it works for you because you have the coinbase already on your phone in a long time?

Not sure about his strategy but I did used coinbase in the past and they never asked for any kind of confirmation or waiting time for any huge amount as equal to 1 bitcoin while transacting via app so yes its worth to be tried.

I don't think there's any restriction on how long the app has been installed. I had it for like 2-3 days. So it doesn't really matter. Try it. I hope it'll go through. Because as I said, it doesn't even require the 2FA when sending crypto. So there's a big chance that your transaction will go through instantly. Try it. Hope this helps.

I didn't  talk about Coinbase in this thread as an exchange. And about the last question you had, none of the exchanges are secure enough to store coins for long. So despite Binance being the #1 exchange, nobody should use it for storing coins. If someone wants to exchange, use 2FA, deposit, exchange and get your money out. And if someone earns by trading, they have to "risk" their money by keeping their money on exchanges and earn. Nothing to do in that case other than using strong passwords, using 2FA and not sharing the API key.
About the title, yeah, maybe you're right. I should've named it something like that. My bad.

Coinbase is not exception of USA-based crypto exchanges that strictly regulated by the USA. government. There are many reasons why USA-based exchanges have lost their leading positions in crypto but local governmental managements are one of the most important reasons.

I think it will take very long period for USA-based exchanges to come back at leading positions among exchanges globally. They will, I believe, but the waiting time is not shortly. In global scale, there will be more strictly managements on crypto then when it happens USA-based exchanges will come back and play as game-changers. But as I thought, it is a very distant journey to go for USA-based exchanges.

Coinbase, I think they have jumped in serious period like Poloniex and Bittrex did previously.

Thanks, it works I thought it won't work but it works.
What is the reason why it works if you use apps than desktop?

Well, the transaction already get 1 confirmation so it means it works and I see my wallet right now shows my transaction and up coming transaction.

Told you. The app only requires 2FA when signing in from the first time. After that it's rather easy to send transactions without using 2FA at all. Enjoy and don't deposit that much again in there. Use something like Electrum (http://electrum.org) to store coins. You'll be able to send for a much smaller fee than Coinbase.

Oh yeah, I've seen similar stories about random KYC on Coinbase.
Many good folks were fooled by Coinbase and had to wait several days to withdraw funds.
Do not use Coinbase kids

Not just coinbase but all the online wallets and exchanges are risky to store your coins on them. But we cannot live without them because we need some of the coins to be on exchanges or on online wallets for many purposes including send/receive of the coins.

I would recommend to keep small amount on coinbase and keep your major savings on hardware or desktop wallets.

We actually no need to keep funds on any exchange to send or receive or to make the kind of payments, we have wallets for the purpose so keep funds on an exchange's wallet for trading alone any other reason we don't need them.

I have been using Coinbase for over two years and have never had any problems with them. I make transactions via Coinbase about once a week.
The only issues I've heard of are when someone uses their addresses for casino games or sports betting.
In my opinion, this is the safest exchange on the market, but of course I never recommend keeping large amounts on web wallets.

I've used Coinbase too. If you keep anything there that you can't afford to lose, it is risky. It may be called the safest exchange, it has like 98% of their funds in cold wallets, but keeping funds in any exchange is risky. I wrote this about Coinbase specifically because it is the most widely used wallet for newbies. Anybody can easily set up an account, deposit and start using it instantly without any backups or so. It doesn't offer the keys of the addresses too. So basically, all your funds are in their hands. Why would anybody blindly trust them? I didn't have issues until the number 3 happened.

Why so? If we want to exchange, we can just deposit and exchange. Well, if you're trading there to earn profits then that's another story. But if trading is not someones occupation, there's really no need to store any funds on any exchange. I targeted mainly on Coinbase for it being widely used.

Of course, keeping funds in the wallets to which you do not have a private key is extremely risky. The same as keeping funds in wallet to which someone else has a private key (not just you). In both situations what happen with funds depends on the honesty of other person.
Coinbase was created for less experienced users, which is why it is probably the most user friendly on market.
When it comes to delaying transfers, they do so for security reasons. They are simply afraid of being accused of money laundering. It is possible that they do it too carefully.

Sending funds from exchanges to other exchanges or casinos is not recommanded because the latter or most of them will generate deposting addresses that have an expiry date and exchanges do not process withdrawal requests instantally.

Maybe. But this is not an excuse to not responding to their customers open support tickets.

And what about the app part? Why does the transaction go through on the app and not on the website? You can see there's something going on here.

I agree with both statements.
However, when it comes to delays, starting to use their website, we agree with the rules. I didn't read it very carefully, but I'm sure they reserve the time to answer. And as I know, sooner or later, but always they respond to tickets.

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Sorry, but I don't use their app, so I can't answer this question. Maybe some other user has experience in this matter.

Well, I've never used Coinbase to be honest, and that's because of various opinions about their platform. I've noticed that many people have problems with Coinbase, so I decided to use other cryptocurrency exchanges like Kraken or CoinDeal. I've been still using the second one and I can recommend it, never had any problems with withdrawals or deposits. What's more CoinDeal has its mobile app too, but it's still a pretty new topic.

It's not about Coinbase being an exchange. It's about being a wallet mostly used by newbies. You don't own your exchange addresses. So basically, you are not in control of your money after depositing. Despite being scammed by well-known exchanges are rare, they can still get hacked or act like an exit scam. It is highly recommended not to store funds for long term in exchanges. Get your own wallet and store them there.

Yeah, I'm going to use Electrum again I made a new wallet with Segwit to make sure I can send bitcoin with a lesser fee.
But I still stay using Coinbase because my old addresses are under their wallet. I'll post a new stake address here on the forum as a proof that I own the wallet for future reference I just need to do this because Coinbase might discover this and they will start to ask for KYC verification if I receive and send another bitcoin from their app just like what happen to me in their web wallet.

Great topic to read. Thank you for all the posts. I will try electrum. 

Has anyone tried Exodus Wallet (desktop)?

Exodus wallet is also good. It allows you to store the seed phrases, has an exchange, stores private keys locally. But does it allow using custom fees? I'm not sure about that. Somebody else could help you out on this one.

It doesn't. If you use Exodus and want to send a tx with custom fees, you will need to import it in Electrum or a similar wallet, then make the transaction from there. Some people use Electrum for BTC and Exodus for the other alts (all with the same seed).

I disagree to the second point of yours. Whose ID do you plan on using and don't you think it is against ToS and it would somehow affect the account in the future whereby they ask seize your funds asking you to do a live verification. And you also agreed to the ToS during sign up which is a disclaimer that says they are not responsible for lose of funds.

I don't think OP is implying that you use another person's ID. He's simply discouraging people from undergoing KYC. Trying to use a fake ID or another person's ID for KYC is a horrible idea with dire consequences.


Regardless of features, non-custodial wallets (like Electrum and Coinomi) are generally considered safer because they have fewer attack vectors (more resistant to phishing, don't have to worry about password leaks, etc.). They don't have the capability to hold your funds for any reason either.

Coinbase does have the advantage of insuring their customers' funds (so they might actually be better than a lot of exchanges for storage), but you won't really need insurance if you know how to take care of coins.

Coinbase is good if you treat it as an exchange and not as a wallet. It is simple as that. Problem is people use it as a wallet and sooner or latter will get burned.

Actually that's the whole point here. Some people aren’t reading the thread quite well. Some maybe didn't simply understand the things.

 :) @TryNinja @Mashfiqun Thank you very much for your reply! VERY helpful for you to stop and help us new peeps :)

It's all about helping people here at the forum. Stick around and you'll see there's plenty of guys who are willing to help.  

Well, if you don't like Coinbase, just find another exchange. Coinbase is commonly known as very reliable and professional exchange, so I'm surprised by these problems. Personally, I don't use Coinbase, better try Kraken or CoinDeal. These two are safe and user-friendly with low fees.

Did you read the post? I talked about Coinbase as a wallet not an exchange. And if you don't use Coinbase then you literally didn't know about these problem. What I wrote are the truth. If you're surprised, I have nothing to do about it.

Here's also sth problematic to consider: https://beincrypto.com/coinbase-holds-a-whopping-966230-bitcoin-7b-in-cold-wallet/

Coinbase holds almost 98% of their funds in cold wallets so it's less error prone to get hacked. You may get your funds back if you are hacked. But still, there's literally no good reason to store any funds on any exchange in my opinion. Why would somebody risk their funds? And KYC, locking gambling money, the app could also be a downside for them.

Of course, and I think everyone already knows that Electrum and Coinomi are generally much safer compared to any centralized exchanges out there even how reputable it is when we are talking about storing our own coins.

What I'm pointing to my statement there is not about the security between those wallets but where did OP got the idea that exchanges are insecure to those non-custodial wallets.

OP is telling anyone not to use Coinbase to store their coins which is already a general and basic rule, guidelines and a must thing to do. Why use Coinbase for that purpose? Just use their features instead.

One of reasons could be they hold over 900 000 bitcoins in cold wallet.
If that will get hacked, it will crush bitcoin market worldwide.
People are careless and keeping BTC on coinbase as some kind of bank, and its not.

That's why it's better to have your own hardware wallet if you want to have a safety feeling for storing your huge volume assets, but if you are a regular user which not hold to much then I think coinbase is good since for sure the people wants from it is the convenience for using on their daily transaction and I got no issue using it even from now but evethough no issue for me occur still I'm still careful since for me exchangers still not safety since it's prone from attacks and other forms of it.

This was actually the case for me. But after my funds were locked a month ago, I thought this can't be the way to store coins anymore. 

And where did I say don’t use Coinbase to exchange? Believe it or not, most of the beginners in crypto use Coinbase to store their crypto-currencies. I personally live in a country where all other features of Coinbase is blocked. I can't trade, can't buy or sell on the platform. The only thing I can do is use their site as a wallet to enjoy free transactions between users. That's it.
If you can use other features, use it. Just don’t store coins for a long term. That's my point.