Will Coinbase be Americas Major Exchange?

[inBitweTrust]

I doubt that it's x 4 more BTC real users since a year ago. Remember that MTGox failed in 2014 and China banned Bitcoin and many BTC users gone.
around of 150K unique address used = it doesn't even mean real users. someone can send BTC to himself (from one account to another).

Actually, it does mean that exactly , that is why they break down total wallets being 2.2 million and users 1.9 million to account for multiple wallets.
You realize coinbase forces KYC on clients, right? You realize that many btc users have gifted people with changtip and coinbase even if they aren't interested in bitcoin and many accept it(cannot hurt) and setup an account to hold onto it for the future, right?

Many of us "Bitcoin nuts" or early adopters have gifted 50-200 friend and family members each and we see how many setup the account and accept the gift because it gets returned to us otherwise. 80% of my coinbase gifts have been accepted and 20% of my changetip gifts get accepted.
Whether these people sit on BTC for a rainy day or immediately retip or spend it they are all users!

[mayax]

you over estimate the BTC market and that report is very clear.

https://bitscan.com/bitnews/item/how-many-people-really-own-bitcoins-and-why-does-it-matter 

and take a look again over the numbers : https://blockchain.info/charts

[ObscureBean]

I love Coinbase and it's really awesome that they're now the first regulated Bitcoin exchange in the US. I think this announcement might have something to do with BTC price surge atm.
This is definitely a great to start 2015 Even though it'll probably be a while before they open up to the rest of the world.

[Gumbork]

a simple fact that would take coinbase has a major exchange in the usa, backed by the nyse with 106 million.

[odolvlobo]

https://blockchain.info/charts/n-unique-addresses -  around of 150K unique address used

That's 150k unique addresses per day. Either way there is very little information about the number of users that you can infer from the number of addresses -- now that most wallets create a new address for every transaction.

[gjgjg]

Great news about the regulated exchange, it will give a lot of confidence for people (traders, ordinary folk, investors etc) to take the plunge and buy in. just what the market needs, some buying pressure to counter all the auto dumps by merchants
http://www.coindesk.com/coinbase-secures-approval-launch-regulated-us-bitcoin-exchange/

also lol on their lunar page

[RocketSingh]

With their new funding of 31 million, will Coinbase become the United States Major exchange? Will this start a frenzy among Americans to join the bitcoin craze? How will it effect the speculated value of bitcoin? Will other exchanges emerge and compete? Will more day traders emerge and push up the trading volume? Can this benefit the legitimization of bitcoin? All these questions are swimming through my mind

Do not forget Circle. I think, the turnaround time is lower for them than coinbase.

[BitCoinNutJob]

Great news about the regulated exchange, it will give a lot of confidence for people (traders, ordinary folk, investors etc) to take the plunge and buy in. just what the market needs, some buying pressure to counter all the auto dumps by merchants
http://www.coindesk.com/coinbase-secures-approval-launch-regulated-us-bitcoin-exchange/

also lol on their lunar page

lol i found that animation page kinda odd, price seems to have moved, do they have more news coming in 4 hours i wonder.

[bitDoubler22]

Hey is there any information on investing directly in coinbase INC. on this site? I know they haven't gone public but I'm just curious on their plans to be traded pubicly and if any options are currently available??

[Ingatqhvq]

Is this exchange just for US people?

[inBitweTrust]

USD is FDIC insured , BTC is privately insured:
https://support.coinbase.com/customer/portal/articles/1780543
supported states:


    Alabama (AL)
    Arkansas (AR)
    California (CA)
    Delaware (DE)
    Georgia (GA)
    Idaho (ID)
    Illinois (IL)
    Indiana (IN)

    Iowa (IA)
    Kansas (KS)
    Massachusetts (MA)
    Mississippi (MS)
    Missouri (MO)
    Montana (MT)
    New Hampshire (NH)
    New Jersey (NJ)

    New Mexico (NM)
    New York (NY)
    North Dakota (ND)
    Puerto Rico (PR)
    South Carolina (SC)
    Washington (WA)
    West Virginia (WV)
    Wisconsin (WI)


FAQ-
https://static.olark.com/jsclient-bucket3/follow.html

[axel2078]

Is this exchange just for US people?

Just initially.  It will open up for other countries later.

[thejaytiesto]

Is this exchange just for US people?

Just initially.  It will open up for other countries later.

Will Gemini open for Europe too? because I think Gemini will be the Americas major exchange for sure.

[crazy_rabbit]

USD is FDIC insured , BTC is privately insured:
https://support.coinbase.com/customer/portal/articles/1780543
supported states:


    Alabama (AL)
    Arkansas (AR)
    California (CA)
    Delaware (DE)
    Georgia (GA)
    Idaho (ID)
    Illinois (IL)
    Indiana (IN)

    Iowa (IA)
    Kansas (KS)
    Massachusetts (MA)
    Mississippi (MS)
    Missouri (MO)
    Montana (MT)
    New Hampshire (NH)
    New Jersey (NJ)

    New Mexico (NM)
    New York (NY)
    North Dakota (ND)
    Puerto Rico (PR)
    South Carolina (SC)
    Washington (WA)
    West Virginia (WV)
    Wisconsin (WI)


FAQ-
https://static.olark.com/jsclient-bucket3/follow.html

That's pretty awesome and great news. Just think- this opens up the possibility of Coinbase Debit cards, banking, etc.... They are really building a bank on bitcoin. It's great.

[axel2078]

Is this exchange just for US people?

Just initially.  It will open up for other countries later.

Will Gemini open for Europe too? because I think Gemini will be the Americas major exchange for sure.

Not sure about that one.

[axel2078]

That's pretty awesome and great news. Just think- this opens up the possibility of Coinbase Debit cards, banking, etc.... .

I've never really understood the usefulness of a bitcoin debit card. Why would one need this if you can already pay straight from an app on your phone? And how would the debit card work if you still have to wait for the confirmations to go through?  I guess if you're ordering something online, it's not a big deal, but a local retailer isn't going to want to wait 30-60 minutes for the approval to go through.

[turvarya]

That's pretty awesome and great news. Just think- this opens up the possibility of Coinbase Debit cards, banking, etc.... .

I've never really understood the usefulness of a bitcoin debit card. Why would one need this if you can already pay straight from an app on your phone? And how would the debit card work if you still have to wait for the confirmations to go through?  I guess if you're ordering something online, it's not a big deal, but a local retailer isn't going to want to wait 30-60 minutes for the approval to go through.

As far as I know, you have BTC in your account, the merchants get paid in USD and the debit card company converts your BTC to USD.

[axel2078]

That's pretty awesome and great news. Just think- this opens up the possibility of Coinbase Debit cards, banking, etc.... .

I've never really understood the usefulness of a bitcoin debit card. Why would one need this if you can already pay straight from an app on your phone? And how would the debit card work if you still have to wait for the confirmations to go through?  I guess if you're ordering something online, it's not a big deal, but a local retailer isn't going to want to wait 30-60 minutes for the approval to go through.

As far as I know, you have BTC in your account, the merchants get paid in USD and the debit card company converts your BTC to USD.

Ah.....that makes sense. I guess the debit card company allows the transaction to go through immediately as long as they can verify you have the necessary Bitcoin balance to equal the amount in USD, correct?  I was thinking that the bitcoin debit card was just another way to pay merchants in Bitcoin.

[turvarya]

I wounder how much volume they will have just by the BTC they got from the merchants. Is there any data about that?

[Lexi Price]

Hi, new girl, long time lurker...had to join!

I'm going to second the Circle suggestion. I did have a few issues with their automated login set up when I tried to update my phone number...it would tell me to enter the new number then when I'd submit, it'd tell me it was incorrect. I never got it resolved and just opened a brand new account (had about 2 bucks in it originally that'd now be dust given the price drop) and they closed the other one out. That said, even though it was a month of nonsense, Circle was awesome about trying to help me resolve the problem.

I joined up with Coinbase originally but really hate the 4 day wait time back and forth. I like that Circle side steps that so your funds are available immediately while on the back end they deal with the bank transfer. Circle is, by far, the easiest way to get situated using bitcoin.

Since I'm not a trader I can't say how or if Circle would even work as a trading option.

As for the ones concerned about Coinbase and the regulation, I would like to point out that we remember there are 2 kinds of people in the world: the conditioned, brainwashed, weak spined lazy sorts who prefer and need and desire to live on their knees and let the government tell them how to breathe and what to think, and the free minded independent sorts who "get" what Bitcoin is and always was. The reality is we're not going to change the slave minded sorts no matter how nifty (or scary) the new magic internet money sounds but consider that regulation *for the time being* is a good thing, it'll let the slave minded sorts feel all comfy and protected and not scare the crap out of them or overwhelm them, which will make it easier for them to enter into the world of Bitcoin with a safety net.

Let that be okay...they're in. Let them hold the government's hand awhile til they get involved in the bitcoin reality enough to learn more about it and once they "get it" they'll easily recognize the simple solution to ejecting the government intrusion and take it offline, local exchanges, p2p trades, offline wallets, etc.

Let's focus on getting people from both camps into this camp and then wean them off the nanny state. Coinbase will make it really easy for the newcomers. It's a good thing!