Coinbase Pro is an advanced cryptocurrency trading platform owned and operated by Coinbase. Launched in early 2015 as Coinbase Exchange, it benefits from many of the same advantages held by Coinbase itself, including ease of use, solid security measures, and good liquidity. That said, it is focused on experienced, high-volume traders and therefore allows a range of advanced trades, from stop and limit orders to good ‘til cancelled and fill or kill orders. Its trading fees are competitively low, while it doesn’t charge anything for cryptocurrency deposits or withdrawals. This makes it a very good exchange overall, even if its customer support can be slow, and even though it supports only four cryptocurrencies and doesn’t allow margin trading.
- Web address: Coinbase Pro
- Main location: San Francisco, US
- Daily volume: 43035 BTC
- Mobile app available: No
- Is decentralized: No
- Parent Company: Coinbase, Inc.
- Transfer types: Bank Transfer, Credit Card, Debit Card, Crypto Transfer
- Supported fiat: USD, EUR, GBP
- Supported pairs: 32
- Has token:
- Fees: Low
Exchange History and Background
Launched in January 2015 and owned by the same company that operates Coinbase, Coinbase Pro is geared more towards professional traders than its more accessible stablemate. It allows for a variety of order types, ranging from the obvious limit and stop orders to advanced orders such as good ‘til canceled (GTC). It doesn’t, however, allow margin trading, and compared to other advanced exchanges it lets users trade in only a small range of cryptocurrencies: bitcoin, bitcoin cash, litecoin, and ether. That said, it does give users the ability to trade their US dollars and euros directly for cryptocurrencies.
Perhaps unsurprisingly for an exchange that’s paired with Coinbase, its security is generally very strong. 98% of customer cryptocurrency funds are held offline, while the 2% held online are insured, meaning that any customers who lost money as the result of a hack would receive full compensation. Added to this, the pairing with Coinbase provides an added degree of convenience and simplicity, in that users who’ve already registered and verified an account with Coinbase will have no need to do the same with Coinbase Pro.
Coinbase Pro Security
Security is another of Coinbase Pro’s strong points. As stated above, only 2% of its customers’ cryptocurrency funds are held online, and these are insured in the case of loss. Similarly, all deposits in US dollars are covered by FDIC insurance up to $250,000, while deposits in euros are still legally held in custodial accounts belonging to the customer, meaning that Coinbase Pro or its creditors couldn’t seize them in the unlikely event of the exchange’s collapse.
Meanwhile, the exchange adopts a variety of measures to ensure that its system remains secure:
- Two-factor authentication is used on all accounts
- All website traffic is encrypted using the SSL (secure sockets layer) cryptographic protocol
- All wallets and wallet keys are encrypted using AES-256 encryption
- All employees have to undergo a security check and must encrypt their hard drives
Perhaps most reassuringly of all, Coinbase Pro has a registered BitLicense with the New York Department of Financial Services. This requires it to submit annual financial audits, which demonstrate that the exchange has sufficient liquidity and remains soundly managed.
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