Coinbase: Buy Crypto & Stocks

Coinbase Review: Zero Fees That Still Keep the Spread

Three Tiers: $4.99, $29.99 and $299.99

The entry membership is $4.99 a month, or $49.99 for a year, and covers zero trading fees on up to $500 of trading each month. The middle tier at $29.99 raises that ceiling to $10,000, and the $299.99 tier removes it. The app makes the pitch directly: a completed order showing 0.012423 BTC with a $14.68 fee struck through. The exclusion is the one worth understanding — the spread built into the buy and sell price is not a fee the membership waives, so it applies at every tier, on every trade, on top of whatever you pay each month.

Rewards, the Card and Advanced Trade Share One Grid

The home screen puts Buy, Send, Receive and Scan in the top row, then Card, Rewards, a self-custody wallet and Advanced trade underneath, with a watchlist of quotes below that. Advanced trade is the part experienced users want: an order book with maker and taker pricing rather than the simple buy button, and materially lower costs on size. A promotional screen offers 5% rewards for holding USDC, described as pegged one-to-one to the dollar and backed by cash and short-dated US treasuries. That rate is set by the company and moves with interest rates rather than being fixed.

Two-Step Verification Before the First Trade

Onboarding puts security second in a four-step flow: create the account, then switch on two-step verification, before any money moves. For a category where a compromised login means an irreversible loss, making that a step rather than a setting is the right decision. Google Play's data card lists eight collected categories and declares nothing shared with third parties, which is rare among the finance apps here. Apple's label is blunter: identifiers used to track you, with financial information, purchases, contact details and sensitive information linked to your identity. Ratings run 4.3 on Play and 4.7 on the App Store.