Coinbase Pro

Coinbase Pro exchange overview

Coinbase was established in June 2012 as a platform for trading and storing cryptocurrencies, mainly Bitcoin and Litecoin. The company was created by Brian Armstrong, Fred Ehrsam, and Blockchain.info co-founder Ben Reeves. In 2013–2017, Charlie Lee, the Litecoin creator, was the exchange’s Director of Engineering. In January 2015, in addition to the basic platform, the company launched a professional platform Coinbase Exchange. In May 2016, it was renamed GDAX, and after rebranding in June 2018, it became Coinbase Pro. It is headquartered in San Francisco, California. In the USA, Coinbase was the first licensed exchange. As many as 45 states have already issued licences to it. The company is also registered with FinCEN in the USA as a money services business and with FCA of the UK as an authorised electronic money institution.

The platform has 30 million users from 102 supported countries. 98% of their crypto assets are stored in autonomous storage and on individual protected servers. Fiat funds are insured by FDIC, and the insurance covers only up to $250 thousand per client. There is a separate project for all cryptocurrency users — Coinbase Wallet, which can store five types of coins, any tokens of the ERC-20 standard, collectables of the ERC-721 standard, and also private keys. Coinbase has created its own stablecoin USD Coin (USDC); this token of the ERC-20 standard is pegged to the US dollar.

Coinbase Pro advantages

1. Deposits can be made with both cryptocurrencies and fiat currencies (USD, EUR, GBP).
2. 58 trading pairs, which consist of 25 cryptocurrencies, stablecoins USDC and DAI, fiat currencies USD, EUR, and GBP.
3. Access to real-time market data using web sockets.
4. API for trading using bots.
5. Margin trading with leverage up to 3x, for now only secured by BTC, USD, and USDC.
6. Fees for deposit/withdrawal: cryptocurrencies — free; ACH transfer — free; wire transfer — 10 USD/25 USD; via SEPA — 0.15 USD; via Swift — 0 GBP/5 GBP.
7. Trading fees: 0.00–0.50% for makers, 0.04–0.50% for takers (depending on the monthly turnover).
8. Reliable storage of cryptocurrency assets, fiat balance insurance.

Achievements

• May 2013: the company received a $5 million investment.
• December 2013: the company received $25 million.
• July 2014: launch of the Vault service for cold storage of BTC, LTC, and ETH with enhanced protection.
• January 2015: the company received $75 million in investments.
• July 2016: the company received $10.5 million.
• January 2017: the exchange received BitLicense of the New York State Department of Financial Services.
• August 2017: launch of the Token software product — a messenger, browser, and wallet in one application. In August, it was renamed Toshi.
• August 2017: the company became the first ‘unicorn’ of the crypto sector. The post-investment valuation was $1.5 billion after receiving $100 million in the series D venture capital funding round.
• November 2017: launch of the Coinbase Custody service for storing crypto assets of institutional investors.
• February 2018: the Coinbase Commerce service launched for merchants wishing to accept cryptocurrency.
• April 2018: the Coinbase Ventures fund launched to finance crypto and blockchain companies (there are 51 of them now). Acquisition of startup Cipher Browser — a hybrid of a web browser and a mobile wallet — and combining it with the company’s own application Toshi. In August, the company introduced a single brand version — Coinbase Wallet. Acquisition of startup Earn.com — a portal for earning cryptocurrency by completing tasks. In December, the company converted it into Coinbase Earn — a portal for learning to earn money on 8 coins in all available ways.
• May 2018: the Coinbase Prime trading platform launched specifically for institutional investors. Acquisition of the decentralized exchange Paradex.
• June 2018: acquisition of brokerage firms Keystone Capital Corp., Digital Wealth LLC, and Venovate Marketplace Inc., which allowed obtaining licences of a broker-dealer, a registered investment advisor, and an alternative trading system.
• September 2018: launch of the Coinbase Learn educational service and the Coinbase Price asset rating.
• October 2018: Coinbase together with Circle released its own stablecoin USD Coin (USDC) using CENTER technology. In November and December, independent auditors confirmed that each token is backed by a fiat dollar.
• January 2019: acquisition of startup Blockspring — a tool for collecting and processing data through API.
• April 2019: Coinbase together with Paysafe Financial Services Limited issued a VISA debit card, which was initially only available in the UK. The geography expanded to 6 countries in June and another 10 countries in November. Using Coinbase Card, one can pay with nine types of cryptocurrencies in 17 countries of Europe.
• August 2019: acquisition of Xapo custodian’s institutional unit.
• September 2019: launch of the USDC Bootstrap Fund to finance DeFi projects.
• December 2019: Coinbase Pro provided users with the ability to create multiple sub-accounts and portfolios.
• February 2020: the company became a full-fledged member of the VISA payment system, received the status of Visa Principal Member and the ability to independently issue debit cards.