What Is Coinbase? Company, Products, Fees and Safety

The company behind the app

Coinbase Global, Inc. is the publicly traded parent of a group of regulated subsidiaries. According to its annual report on Form 10-K for 2025, Coinbase, Inc. was incorporated in May 2012 and Coinbase Global, Inc. was formed in January 2014 as its holding company. The parent converted its incorporation from Delaware to Texas in December 2025. The 10-K reports 4,951 employees as of December 31, 2025.

Coinbase has no physical headquarters. Its filings explain that the company is remote-first and gives a New York address only because the SEC requests one. That detail matters for readers searching for a "Coinbase office" to visit: there is no walk-in customer service location, and anyone offering one is not acting for the company.

Brian Armstrong, a co-founder, is chief executive; fellow co-founder Fred Ehrsam sits on the board, according to Coinbase's About page.

Two corporate events shape the current business:

• Deribit. Coinbase announced on August 14, 2025, that it had closed its acquisition of Deribit, a crypto options exchange. Deribit FZE holds a conditional virtual asset service provider license from Dubai's Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority, per the 10-K.
• SEC case dismissed. On February 27, 2025, the US Securities and Exchange Commission announced it had filed a joint stipulation to dismiss its civil enforcement action against Coinbase, Inc. and Coinbase Global, Inc. The SEC said the decision was tied to its policy review and was not based on the merits of its claims.

Coinbase reports these figures on its About page, as of June 30, 2026: $246 billion in assets on platform, a 10.3% share of crypto trading volume, and presence in more than 100 countries. These are company-reported metrics, not independently audited figures.

What Coinbase offers

The Coinbase brand covers several products that work very differently. The table below separates them by who holds the assets.

The About page also lists prediction markets, derivatives, stocks, token sales, borrowing and USDC rewards. Availability of each depends on your country and, in the US, sometimes your state.

Coinbase Wallet (and the Base App detour)

Coinbase Wallet is a self-custodial wallet: you hold the recovery phrase or keys, and transactions are signed on your device. In July 2025 Coinbase renamed the app "Base App" and added social and messaging features. The 10-K describes the Base App as formerly Coinbase Wallet and notes that Coinbase cannot by default help recover access if you lose your keys, although users can add a recovery signer. On September 10, 2026, The Block reported that Coinbase was reverting to the Coinbase Wallet name and refocusing the app on multichain trading, including perpetual futures routed through Hyperliquid. Expect screenshots and older guides to show either name. Read OBOL's Coinbase Wallet review for an assessment of the wallet itself, and the custodial vs non-custodial guide for the underlying trade-off.

Base and USDC

Base is an Ethereum Layer 2 network. Coinbase earns revenue from sequencer fees on transactions processed on Base, according to the 10-K. Coinbase does not issue USDC; Circle does. Under an agreement dated August 2023 with an initial three-year term, Coinbase shares in the economics of USDC reserves and earns more as more USDC is held on its platform. This explains why Coinbase promotes USDC balances and rewards.

Coinbase Card

The Coinbase Card is a Visa prepaid debit card issued by Pathward, N.A., Member FDIC. As of October 2026 Coinbase lists it as available in all US states except Hawaii. Coinbase says there are no spending or annual fees, but a spread applies whenever crypto is bought or sold to fund a purchase, and ATM operators may add their own charges. Crypto rewards are optional and the rate varies. OBOL's Coinbase Card review covers the card in more depth.

Staking and cbETH

When you stake through Coinbase, the company runs the staking and takes a commission from rewards. Its fee page lists a standard commission of 35% for ADA, ATOM, AVAX, DOT, ETH, MATIC, SOL and XTZ, with reduced rates (31.75%, 28.5% or 25.25%) for some assets on Coinbase One tiers, as of October 2026. Unstaking after the network's unbonding period is free; instant unstaking carries a fee shown at request.

cbETH is a separate route for ETH. Each cbETH represents one staked ETH plus rewards accrued since June 16, 2022, so it is not one-to-one with ETH and its market price can trade below the value of the underlying stake. Coinbase states that wrapping is free, that cbETH carries a 10% commission on staking rewards, and that wrapping is available only in regions where it offers ETH staking. See OBOL's Coinbase staking review, OBOL's cbETH review and the liquid staking guide.

What Coinbase charges

Coinbase does not publish one flat trading fee for the main app. What you pay depends on how you trade, as of October 2026:

• Spread. Simple buy, sell and convert prices include a spread, the gap between Coinbase's quoted price and the market price. Coinbase shows it in the order preview but does not publish a fixed percentage.
• Coinbase fee. A separate fee that varies by payment method, order size, asset, market conditions and jurisdiction. It appears before you confirm.
• Limit orders in the simple app. Coinbase lists a 1% limit order execution fee on each limit buy and sell, and says a Coinbase fee of up to 1.875% may also apply depending on payment method. Coinbase One does not waive the 1% limit order fee.
• Coinbase Advanced. No spread; you pay maker or taker fees from a volume-based tier schedule shown in your account. A negative maker rate means a rebate.
• Sending crypto off the platform. Coinbase pays the blockchain fee and charges you an estimated network fee. Lightning Network bitcoin sends cost 0.2% of the amount, and USDT withdrawals add 0.01% (capped at 20 USDT) plus the network fee.
• DEX trades in the app add a service fee on top of the Coinbase fee.
• Recovering unsupported crypto sent to Coinbase costs the network fee plus 5% of the estimated recovered value above $100.

Holding cash or crypto and transferring between Coinbase users' balances is free. Because the spread is not itemized as a percentage, the practical way to compare costs is to read the total in the order preview, or to place the same trade on Coinbase Advanced, where the fee rate is explicit.

Is Coinbase regulated?

Yes, through a set of entity-specific licenses and registrations rather than a single global license. As listed in the 2025 Form 10-K:

• United States: money transmitter licenses in states that require them, plus Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico; a New York BitLicense from the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS); a Louisiana virtual currency business license. Coinbase Custody Trust Company is a New York limited purpose trust company supervised by NYDFS. Coinbase Capital Markets Corp. is an SEC-registered broker-dealer and FINRA member, and Coinbase Financial Markets, Inc. is a futures commission merchant regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
• European Union: a MiCA license obtained in Luxembourg, covering the European Economic Area.
• Elsewhere: a major payment institution license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore; a Class F Digital Asset Business License from the Bermuda Monetary Authority; registration with AUSTRAC in Australia; FINTRAC money services business and restricted dealer registrations in Canada; virtual asset service provider registrations in the UK and Argentina; and electronic money institution authorizations from the UK Financial Conduct Authority and the Central Bank of Ireland.

A license is tied to a specific entity and product. A Coinbase service available in one country may be offered by a different subsidiary, or not offered at all, somewhere else.

How Coinbase holds customer assets

The question "is Coinbase safe" has two parts: how assets are held, and what protections apply if something goes wrong.

According to the 10-K:

• Coinbase states that it holds customer crypto one-to-one and does not use third-party sub-custodians.
• Coinbase, Inc. holds retail crypto in omnibus blockchain addresses and records each customer's share in a separate internal ledger. Its trust company and Luxembourg entity use segregated addresses for cold storage clients.
• The company aims to keep no more than 2% of custodied crypto in hot wallets. Private keys are never stored in plaintext, and decrypting them requires several human approvers.
• US customers' USD balances are held at FDIC-insured banks, NCUSIF-insured credit unions or money market funds.
• Crypto assets are not insured or guaranteed by any government agency.

The practical limit is that a custodial account is only as safe as the login protecting it. Most losses reported by users involve stolen credentials or scams, not exchange insolvency.

The May 2025 customer data incident

On May 15, 2025, Coinbase disclosed that criminals had bribed overseas customer support contractors to copy customer data. The stolen information included names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, the last four digits of Social Security numbers, masked bank details, government ID images and account balance snapshots. Coinbase said the attackers did not obtain passwords, two-factor codes or private keys and could not move funds, and that fewer than 1% of monthly transacting users were affected. The attackers demanded $20 million; Coinbase refused and offered a $20 million reward for information leading to arrests. It also said it would reimburse retail customers who were tricked into sending funds to the scammers as a direct result of the incident, after reviewing each case.

Scam texts, "withdrawal codes" and support impersonation

Fake Coinbase messages are among the most searched Coinbase topics. A common pattern is a text containing a "withdrawal code" or a warning about a suspicious withdrawal, followed by a call from someone claiming to be Coinbase support.

Coinbase's help center states that its support staff will never:

• ask you to move, "secure" or access your funds;
• ask for a seed phrase, password or two-step verification code;
• tell you to install software or request remote access to your device;
• call or text with a new wallet address or seed phrase;
• ask you to call an unknown number.

Coinbase also says it does not sell insurance products, so any "Coinbase insurance" offer is fraudulent. If a message makes you uneasy, do not reply to it. Open the Coinbase app directly, lock the account if needed, and email [email protected]. OBOL's guide to the first hour after a wallet compromise covers next steps if keys or credentials may already be exposed.

Getting started and exiting

Opening a Coinbase.com account requires identity verification, as expected for a regulated custodial service. The available payment methods, product menu and limits depend on country and account. To leave, you can sell to cash and withdraw to a linked bank account, or send crypto to a wallet you control; the second option incurs the network fee described above. Staked assets must be unstaked first, either after the network's unbonding period or through paid instant unstaking. If you used Coinbase Wallet, there is nothing to withdraw from Coinbase: the funds are already on-chain under your keys, and the recovery phrase is the only way back in if you lose the device. The seed phrase security guide explains how to store it.

Getting help

Coinbase support is reached through the Help Center at help.coinbase.com and the contact options listed there; Coinbase tells customers to use only the phone number or email published on its official Contact us page. Suspected account compromise or impersonation attempts go to [email protected]. Coinbase says that if a genuine support call drops, the agent will call back within five minutes from the same number and reverify you with a security question.

For an evaluation of the exchange itself, see OBOL's Coinbase exchange review; for how it sits among peers, see the exchange ratings.

Official channels

Use only these addresses and accounts, which Coinbase links from its own website or which point back to it:

• Website: coinbase.com
• Help Center: help.coinbase.com
• X: x.com/coinbase
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/coinbase
• Instagram: instagram.com/coinbase/
• TikTok: tiktok.com/@coinbase
• GitHub: github.com/coinbase