5 Best Coinbase Alternatives in 2023 – Similar Exchanges

Coinbase alternative exchange	Trading Fees	Review	Our Rating
1. Kraken	Maker Fee 0.16%, Taker Fee 0.26%	Read Kraken Review	5/5
2. Binance.us	Maker Fee 0.10%, Taker Fee 0.10%	–	4.5/5
3. CEX.io	Maker Fee 0.15%, Taker Fee 0.25%	Read CEX.io review	4/5
4. Gemini	Maker Fee 0.2%, Taker Fee 0.4%	–	4.2/5
5. Bitcoin ATM’s	Variable – 5% to 25%	Bitcoin ATM’s	3.5/5

When it comes to buying Bitcoin, there are plenty of options out there.

But when it comes to buying Bitcoin in your home country’s fiat currency, the options become fewer and fewer.

When most people think of buying Bitcoin using fiat currency, they think about Coinbase.

For those of you who don’t know Coinbase, here is a quick intro:

• Coinbase is a US-based exchange. It is the world’s most popular exchange to buy and sell Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin. They also support the instant purchase of these currencies via Visa/MasterCard credit and debit cards.

You might think this is great, but there’s a big problem…

• At present, they only serve 32 countries. 
  • You can check if their service is available in your country here.

It seems absurd that buying Bitcoin – something famous for its open, borderless, and decentralized nature – would be restricted because of where you are trying to buy it.

Coinbase has said they’re trying to expand operations to 168 countries, but I doubt that.

Why do I doubt that? Because Coinbase became the first exchange to be valued over $1 billion, and they recently raised $100 million. Even before this funding, Coinbase was already heavily funded, so if they wanted to expand support for 168 countries, they would’ve started by now.

Moreover, I think Coinbase is more like a bank because of its high fees, limited accessibility, and its recent stance on Bitcoin Cash.

Considering all these facts, there are several Coinbase alternatives out there that will help you get your hands on some Bitcoin.

Top 5 Best Coinbase Alternatives

1. Kraken

Based out of San Francisco, U.S.A, and operational since 2011, Kraken is one of the biggest Bitcoin exchanges out there. Even though they are based in the US, they are one of the largest Euro to crypto markets in the world. Check out Kraken review.

Apart from Bitcoin, they also provide trading of Ethereum (ETH), Monero (XMR), Dash (DASH), Litecoin (LTC), Ripple (XRP), Stellar/Lumens (XLM), Ethereum Classic (ETC), Augur REP tokens (REP), ICONOMI (ICN), Melon (MLN), Zcash (ZEC), Dogecoin (XDG), Tether (USDT), Gnosis (GNO), and EOS (EOS).

You can buy/sell these many different cryptocurrencies via 5 fiat currencies – USD, GBP, JPY, EUR, and CAD – by SEPA or wire transfer.

At this time, they don’t support buying through credit/debit cards.

Other notable features of Kraken are:

• Two-factor authentication.
• Email supports PGP/GPG signing and encryption.
• Create a master key for account recovery.

You can check the fee schedule of Kraken here.

Kraken accounts take some time to get verified. There are three tiers, and getting through them all can require some patience. To make sure everything goes smoothly, be sure to take the proper steps.

2. Binance.US

Binance is the world’s number 1 crypto exchange. However, due to regulatory restrictions in the US, the platform is not available to the residents of the US.

Therefore, in order to cater to the needs of US customers, Binance launched a separate exchange called Binance.US in 2019.

The exchange supports almost all the states in the US except Hawaii, New York, Texas, and Vermont. You can check the updated list of Unsupported States by Binance.US here.

The exchange offers more than 100 different cryptocurrencies. In addition to this, it offers a seamless web interface and mobile application for a wide range of users from beginners to professionals to institutional traders.

Further, Binance.US offers one of the cheapest trading fees in the market. The base trading fee is 0.1% of the transaction value. Further, if you hold BNB tokens in your wallet, you get 25% discount. This means that your effective trading fee rate is 0.075%.

Note: BNB is the in-house utility token of the Binance ecosystem.

Not only this, but Binance also offers crypto staking that allows a user to earn passive income on their crypto assets.

3. CEX

CEX is a London, UK-based exchange that has been operating since 2013. It supports the buying and selling of BTC and ETH. CEX has earned quite a bit of respect in the cryptocurrency space and is operational in 99% of countries of the world.

Here are some of the notable features of CEX:

• Supports wire transfers of USD, EUR, RUB, and GBP.
• Offers a mobile app.
• 2-factor account authentication (good security features).
• Buy/sell/trade Bitcoin and Ethereum.
• Buy Bitcoin using a credit or debit card.
• Buy Ethereum using a credit or debit card.
• Great 24*7 customer support.
• Trade exchange.

It also supports the instant purchase of BTC/ETH via Visa/MasterCard credit and debit cards. Read CEX review to learn every feature.

And you should know that while dealing with fiat currencies, you need to verify your identification. Here you will be required to do a card verification and identity verification.

CEX users need not worry about the security of their funds because they have 2FA authentication as well as SMS/call service available for extra security.

Also, the fee structure is pretty easy to understand.

• For further reading: CoinSutra’s Detailed Review of CEX.io

4. Gemini

Gemini is one of the fastest-growing Bitcoin exchanges in the world. They are based out of the United States and are fully compliant with the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYSDFS).

Currently, Gemini is serving the following regions:

You can also see here if your country or state is listed in this list.

Gemini supports buying/selling of BTC and ETH against USD which you can wire transfer from the supported countries and states. One notable thing about this exchange is that they don’t charge a fee for wire transfer deposits, however, respective currency conversion charges will still apply.

You can check their trade fee schedule here, and see below for the withdrawal/deposit fee schedule.

They also offer institutional accounts apart from individual accounts for more serious/larger trading.

That said, if you are a beginner, you will have no trouble figuring out how to use this marketplace.

5. Bitcoin ATMs

Another alternative to Coinbase and centralized exchanges are Bitcoin ATMs.

However, the trend of BTC ATMs are not yet that prevalent, but if you live in a country where you have Bitcoin ATMs, then this is a great way to get some bitcoins.

All you need is fiat money such as EUR, GBP or USD (these are the currencies most Bitcoin ATMs accept).

A Bitcoin ATM asks you to scan your public address, and it will transfer BTC to that address in the amount of fiat that you deposited into the ATM.

In some cases, if you don’t have a public address, just select the option of “don’t have an address” and the ATM will generate a paper wallet for you (if it supports that feature). Also, you can choose a Bitcoin wallet from our list, and generate a Bitcoin public address that way.

Check here if your country has a Bitcoin ATM

Best Coinbase Alternatives

I should mention that I am not against Coinbase. At the same time, I don’t see any harm in exploring other alternatives for those users across the globe that can’t get access to Coinbase.

That said, there are plenty of options out there to buy and sell Bitcoin. So now all you need to do is go and do it!

If you have any questions or comments or would like to add another suggestion to this list, share your thoughts in the comments below.

And if you find this post useful, do share it with your network!

Here are a few more hand-picked guides to read next:

• The Top 5 Best Bitcoin Wallets
• Best Bitcoin Exchanges In The World For Trading Bitcoins
• What Not To Do After Investing In Bitcoin & Other Cryptos

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