Coinbase

Coinbase is the largest publicly traded cryptocurrency exchange in the United States (NASDAQ: COIN) and one of the few that operates fully under U.S. financial regulatory oversight. Founded in 2012 by Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam, the platform holds BitLicense approval in New York, is a FinCEN-registered Money Services Business, and is registered as a broker-dealer through Coinbase Securities. As of 2024, Coinbase serves over 110 million verified users globally and has custody over approximately $325 billion in customer assets, making it the largest U.S. crypto custodian by a significant margin.

The exchange is structurally divided into two distinct products: Coinbase (the retail-friendly interface), and Coinbase Advanced (an institutional-grade trading platform with substantially lower fees). For retail users, the Coinbase app offers an approachable interface and direct integration with fiat on-ramps — you can buy crypto with a bank transfer, debit card, or Apple Pay — but at a significant cost. Standard Coinbase fees range from 0.5% to 3.99% on transactions, with retail trades under $10,000 typically hitting the higher end of that range. By contrast, Coinbase Advanced operates as a true maker-taker exchange with fees starting at 0.40%/0.60% maker/taker at the base tier and dropping toward 0.00%/0.04% at the highest volume tiers. The fee differential between the two products is so meaningful that most high-frequency or medium-volume traders explicitly avoid the standard Coinbase interface.