Coinbase
Ranked 2 of 5 crypto exchanges by recommenders
People recommend it for easy fiat on-ramps, free USD withdrawals, low-fee transfers abroad, and a record of never losing customer funds. The most common caveat is security breaches and data leaks.
People recommend it for easy fiat on-ramps, free USD withdrawals, low-fee transfers abroad, and a record of never losing customer funds. The most common caveat is security breaches and data leaks.
63 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 12
- criticize it
- 51
- approval share
- 19%
Recommended in 6 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 12 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 0.2 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 6 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Never lost customer funds
“Coinbase has never lost customer funds while operating in an environment with 0 safety nets”
Comment from 17 Nov 2025 in “I have recordings proving Coinbase knew about breach months before disclosure” “they have never lost customer funds in their custody”
Comment from 17 Nov 2025 in “I have recordings proving Coinbase knew about breach months before disclosure” Easy on-ramp and USD withdrawal
“Just send USDC to Coinbase and convert (sell) to USD for free and withdraw.”
Comment from 30 Oct 2026 in “Binance-hacker-1029 – $5.6B stolen from Binance” “Coinbase is good for on-ramping, bad for storage.”
Comment from 16 Nov 2025 in “I have recordings proving Coinbase knew about breach months before disclosure” “CashApp and Coinbase interface with my actual bank accounts, on my end.”
Comment from 23 Jun 2026 in “Crypto in 2026: Oh, This Is the Bad Place” Trustworthy compared to other fintechs
“one of the few fintech companies that hasn't fucked me over”
Comment from 5 May 2026 in “Today I've made the difficult decision to reduce the size of Coinbase by ~14%” “Coinbase has been far more reserved than Binance”
Comment from 14 Sep 2026 in “Making Startups Powerful”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Security breaches and data leaks
“This leak over customer data suggests that they should treat that with as much obsession as they do with their private keys.”
Comment from 17 Nov 2025 in “I have recordings proving Coinbase knew about breach months before disclosure” “even their Discord channel's api keys were compromised and were finally reset around April or May”
Comment from 16 Nov 2025 in “I have recordings proving Coinbase knew about breach months before disclosure” “It takes one massive breach and theft from the exchange as a result of this and they are cooked.”
Comment from 5 May 2026 in “Today I've made the difficult decision to reduce the size of Coinbase by ~14%” Requires linked external bank account
“If Coinbase did not require an external bank account to create the coinbase account, by law, they cannot require one to close the account.”
Comment from 5 May 2026 in “Today I've made the difficult decision to reduce the size of Coinbase by ~14%” “they only let you log in if you have an external bank account associated with your Coinbase account”
Comment from 5 May 2026 in “Today I've made the difficult decision to reduce the size of Coinbase by ~14%” “The worst part of using something like Coinbase is having to do yet another bank transfer”
Comment from 5 May 2026 in “Today I've made the difficult decision to reduce the size of Coinbase by ~14%” Layoffs and shrinking workforce
“If the company is sitting so well, and is facing imminent growth, then they don't need to do layoffs, they want to.”
Comment from 5 May 2026 in “Today I've made the difficult decision to reduce the size of Coinbase by ~14%” “Coinbase famously rescinded offers days before people joined when they did a previously huge layoff.”
Comment from 5 May 2026 in “Today I've made the difficult decision to reduce the size of Coinbase by ~14%” “This is a dying company, and they physically will not have the capital to pay paychecks”
Comment from 6 May 2026 in “Today I've made the difficult decision to reduce the size of Coinbase by ~14%” Regulatory fines and unregistered securities
“Regulatory compliance as attempted by Coinbase does not pay, and of course they had many fines for non-compliance already.”
Comment from 7 Aug 2026 in “Interviewing Engineers in the AI Era: Lessons from a Year of Rebuilding” “Even a supposedly "legitimate" exchange like Coinbase is allowing unregistered securities to trade on its platform.”
Comment from 23 Jun 2026 in “Crypto in 2026: Oh, This Is the Bad Place”
Other crypto exchanges people recommend
The four most recommended other crypto exchanges, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CZR Exchange | 22 | 2 | 92% | 1 | — | — |
| CoinbaseThis page | 12 | 51 | 19% | 6 | — | — |
| Binance | 10 | 39 | 20% | 3 | — | — |
| Kraken | 7 | 5 | 58% | 8 | — | — |
| Hyperliquid | 6 | 7 | 46% | 3 | — | — |
What people said
40 of the 66 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“companies like coinbase which are centralizing something that was supposed to be decentralized”
“Just send USDC to Coinbase and convert (sell) to USD for free and withdraw.”
“On an exchange like kraken, coinbase, bitstamp or Binance there is a high chance you wont loose your money, even after a hack.”
“Coinbase has been far more reserved than Binance”
“coinbase, metamask....these things add a lot of friction and exchange fees”
“Regulatory compliance as attempted by Coinbase does not pay, and of course they had many fines for non-compliance already.”
“they said I had to be able to demonstrate major disruption of service”
“CashApp and Coinbase interface with my actual bank accounts, on my end.”
“Even a supposedly "legitimate" exchange like Coinbase is allowing unregistered securities to trade on its platform.”
“they built their business on bitcoin being used on dark nets for illegal purposes”
“Most payment providers either outright prohibit (PayPal, CoinBase) or restrict (Stripe) legal gun transactions.”
“I have a deeply negative view of the crytocurrency industry including Coinbase”
“rebuilding Coinbase as an intelligence, with humans around the edge aligning it”
“I would not want to be working at a company like what Coinbase is turning into.”
“Coinbase gave my confidential "AML" information to criminal extortionists”
“This is a dying company, and they physically will not have the capital to pay paychecks”
“one of the few fintech companies that hasn't fucked me over”
“The worst part of using something like Coinbase is having to do yet another bank transfer”
“People don't work somewhere like Coinbase if they're concerned about morality or mitigating the harms done to society.”
“Coinbase famously rescinded offers days before people joined when they did a previously huge layoff.”
“I use coin base because I can send money to my family in other countries with no fees”
“It takes one massive breach and theft from the exchange as a result of this and they are cooked.”
“If Coinbase did not require an external bank account to create the coinbase account, by law, they cannot require one to close the account.”
“they only let you log in if you have an external bank account associated with your Coinbase account”
“If the company is sitting so well, and is facing imminent growth, then they don't need to do layoffs, they want to.”
“That statement does not inspire confidence considering how ripe crypto is for hackers/scammers”
“it doesn't fare well for Coinbase to engage in such reckless behavior”
“One of the biggest YC success story is Coinbase.”
“Giving credence and advertisement to all of those has caused huge societal problems.”
“expanding to prediction markets themselves which are also eating away at gambling”
“If there's one thing they took extremely seriously it was data security.”
“This leak over customer data suggests that they should treat that with as much obsession as they do with their private keys.”
“they have never lost customer funds in their custody”
“Coinbase has never lost customer funds while operating in an environment with 0 safety nets”
“cashing in on insider knowledge that they were going to start supporting Bitcoin Cash”
“I got a response from the head of trust and safety after I sent the phone recording, email + email headers”
“even their Discord channel's api keys were compromised and were finally reset around April or May”
“emails to that address can be treated as hostile in the wake of the breach”
“Coinbase is good for on-ramping, bad for storage.”
“Monero also isn't tradable on coinbase”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.