Coinbase: fact sheet

Who runs Coinbase?

Coinbase is operated by Coinbase Global, Inc., which is listed on Nasdaq under the ticker COIN. Because it is a public company, its most detailed self-description is its annual report (Form 10-K) filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Most facts on this page come from that filing for the year ended 31 December 2025, or from regulators’ own announcements.

According to the 10-K, the business was “initially incorporated in May 2012 as Coinbase, Inc., a Delaware corporation”, and in December 2025 the parent company converted to a Texas corporation. It has no head office: “We are a remote-first company. Accordingly, we do not maintain a headquarters.”

The 10-K describes three groups of customers: consumers, who use Coinbase as “a primary account for crypto-enabled financial services”; institutions; and developers. For a beginner, the relevant products are the simple Coinbase app (buy, sell, convert and send crypto) and Coinbase Advanced, which shows a live order book. This fact sheet does not rate or recommend Coinbase. It records what can be checked, with the date we checked it.

Is Coinbase licensed or registered where you live?

It depends on where you live, because Coinbase serves different countries through different companies. Here is what we could confirm on 2 October 2026:

We could not open the FCA register or the full EU register of MiCA firms kept by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) with our tools. So check the UK and EU entries yourself before you sign up. A licence or registration means the firm is allowed to operate. It does not mean your money is protected; see the checklist below.

How does Coinbase charge fees?

Coinbase does not publish one flat price for simple trades. Its fee disclosure says fees are calculated when you place an order and can depend on “your chosen payment method, order size, market conditions, jurisdictional location, asset”. The structure has four parts:

• Spread. Quoted buy and sell prices include a spread — a gap between the price you pay and the market price. Coinbase says “The spread helps increase the likelihood of a successful transaction and allows Coinbase to lock in your quoted price temporarily while processing your order.” Learn more in our explainer on the bid-ask spread.
• Trading fee. A separate fee on each buy or sell, which varies with the factors above.
• Limit orders. “Coinbase charges a separate limit order execution fee equal to 1% of the amount you trade for each limit buy and limit sell order.”
• Sending crypto out. When you send crypto to another wallet, Coinbase charges a fee based on its estimate of the blockchain network fee.

Coinbase Advanced works differently: “No spread is included for Coinbase Advanced because you're interacting directly with the order book.” It charges trading fees instead; check the current rates on its official fee page, as we did not verify them.

Illustrative arithmetic: a $500 limit buy carries a limit-order execution fee of $500 × 1% = $5, before any other fee or spread. Coinbase shows the total on the order preview — compare it with our guide to crypto trading fees.

How does Coinbase hold customer crypto?

When you leave crypto on Coinbase, Coinbase holds the private keys. That is third-party custody. In its 10-K, Coinbase states its legal position for the United States: “UCC Article 8 provides that financial assets held in the United States by Coinbase for its customers are not property of Coinbase and not subject to claims of our general creditors.” This is the company’s own reading of US commercial law. It is not a guarantee from a regulator, and it says nothing about customers outside the US.

We did not find an official proof-of-reserves page for Coinbase. As a listed company, it publishes audited financial statements in its SEC filings instead. Those are a different kind of document from a proof-of-reserves report. Our explainer on what proof of reserves does and does not prove covers the difference.

What regulatory actions and incidents has Coinbase faced?

These come only from regulators’ releases and Coinbase’s own SEC filings. An action listed here is a fact about the past. It is not a prediction.

The May 2025 filing says the stolen data included names, addresses, phone numbers and emails, the last four digits of Social Security numbers, masked bank details, government ID images and account balances. Coinbase stated: “The Incident did not involve the compromise of passwords or private keys, and at no time were any of the targeted contractors or employees able to access customer funds.” It preliminarily estimated costs of “approximately $180 million to $400 million” and said it intended to reimburse eligible retail customers who had sent funds to the criminals. Stolen personal data is often used in impersonation scams. A call or email claiming to be Coinbase support deserves extra suspicion — see our crypto scam red flags.

Where is Coinbase not available?

Coinbase publishes a country list on its website, but the page loads as an app that our tools could not read, so we have not reproduced it. Check the official list for your country, and check which Coinbase company would serve you, before you open an account. If you are in a country that Coinbase does not serve, a site or app offering “Coinbase” services there is a warning sign.

What should you check before you sign up?

These checks come from regulator guidance, not from Coinbase. They apply to any platform.

1. Find it on the register yourself. Type the regulator’s web address into your browser rather than following a link, then compare the exact legal entity name, reference number, website and phone number with what you were given. Scammers copy the details of real firms. Our guide to checking if a crypto firm is authorised lists the official registers by country.
2. Read what the register entry means. The UK FCA says: “Being registered with the FCA as a cryptoasset business does not mean your customers benefit from the protections of the Financial Ombudsman Service or the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS).” FinCEN says a listing on its MSB site “is not a recommendation, certification of legitimacy, or endorsement of that business by any government agency.”
3. Know which entity you are signing up with. The terms of service name the company you contract with. That entity, and the country it is in, decide which rules apply to you.
4. Decide who holds the keys. The SEC warns: “If the third-party custodian is hacked, shuts down, or goes bankrupt, you may lose access to your crypto assets.” Read our lesson on wallets and private keys before you leave a balance on any platform.
5. Price the whole trade. Add the spread, the trading fee and the withdrawal fee before you buy. Our crypto fee calculator does the arithmetic.
6. Treat “support” contact with caution. After the 2025 data theft, assume a caller may know your name and balance. Contact the platform only through the app or a web address you type yourself.

What are the risks of using Coinbase?

The main risks are the same as for any crypto platform; size or a stock-market listing does not remove them.

• Price risk. The UK FCA says people who buy crypto should be prepared to lose all their money.
• Custody risk. If you leave crypto on the platform, a hack, shutdown or bankruptcy could cut off your access, as the SEC warns above.
• No compensation scheme. In the UK, FCA registration does not bring Financial Ombudsman or FSCS protection. The SEC says brokerage-account protections do not cover accounts with crypto firms.
• Data and impersonation risk. The 2025 incident shows that personal data held by a platform can leak even when funds are not touched.

Our page on crypto risks explains each of these in more depth.