Gemini vs. Coinbase: Introduction

Gemini vs. Coinbase has been debated for a long time. Investors often want to know the best virtual currency to use when it comes to Gemini and Coinbase.

Which of the Gemini vs. Coinbase do you think is the best? We have to look at supporting cryptocurrencies and locations available too.

Every day, cryptocurrency attracts investors to different platforms like Coinbase and Gemini. The more attractive these platforms become to investors, the better they are upgraded to serve them.

Coinbase and Gemini operate well-known centralized exchanges that obey the strict rules and regulations set by the U.S regulations and supported by famous banking systems.

Investors can easily access the advanced trading options on both platforms through Gemini’s ActiveTrader or Coinbase Pro program.

While the exchanges between Gemini vs. Coinbase are similar, the two platforms have differences.  Gemini offers features that can support institutional traders or investors.

Coinbase allows traders to earn cryptocurrency while they learn how to trade. Beginners do not have challenges using the both platforms.

We carefully reviewed Coinbase and Gemini to decide the overall costs for various trading volumes and amounts, crypto supported, and payment methods available.

We considered security solutions, standout features,  ease of use, the functionality of the mobile applications, and customer support.

Gemini vs. Coinbase: At A Glance

Crypto Exchange Platforms	Gemini	Coinbase
Main platform features	Beginner-friendly and secure interface, multiple buying and selling options, and ability to earn interest on stored crypto	User-friendly platform designed for beginners supports withdrawal to PayPal, and ways to earn crypto
Fees	0.50% per trade plus a fixed fee for trades under $200 or 1.49% for trades over $200, 3.49% debit or credit card purchase	0.50% per trade, 3.99% for credit card purchases, and 1.49% for Coinbase wallet or bank account purchases
Number of cryptocurrencies supported	33	51
Security features	Two-step verification, FDIC-insured USD balances up to $250,000, Gemini Wallet digital insurance, U2F security with a hardware key, and cold storage	Two-step verification, FDIC-insured USD balances up to $250,000, cold storage, AES-256 digital wallet encryption, multi-signature wallets, and cold storage
Types of transactions supported	Buy, sell, trade, deposit, and withdraw	Buy, sell, exchange, send, withdraw, and receive
Maximum daily trading amount	$500	Limits vary based on your payment method and region

 

Gemini vs. Coinbase: What to Know

Gemini Brief Information

Pros

It offers an intuitive application interface.

It helps traders stored cryptocurrency earn interest.

It offers insurance for the Gemini Wallet.

Cons

The currency is available in 50 countries.

It has high fees.

It offers fewer trading pairs supported.

Coinbase Brief Information

Pros

Coinbase is used in 100 countries

The cash balances are FDIC-insured up to $250,000.

It comes with a user-friendly interface designed for beginners.

Cons

It offers a complex fee structure.

It comes with limited charting features.

It has fewer customer service options than Gemini.

 

Gemini vs. Coinbase: Features

When you want to compare Gemini vs. Coinbase, both platforms are great for beginners with user-friendly mobile apps, simple-to-use interfaces, and smart trading options for everyone.

The two platforms offer you digital hot wallets with a huge collection of informational resources. These platforms offer investors amazing features.

Here are what to consider in the features of both platform:

Gemini features:

The Gemini Earn program:  This features offers people in all states in the United States of America opportunity of earning interest on their net balance of some coins at a varying interest rate.

Take, for instance, Dai (DAI), and Filecoin (FIL) offer investors a 7.4% annual percentage yield (APY).

Third-party integrations:  The coin offers public API keys to help them connect other software tools. That makes Gemini a great option for institutional traders or fund managers.

Gemini Pay: It teams up with thousands of retailers, which allow investors to pay for purchases using their Gemini account and stored cryptocurrency.

Coinbase features:

The following features are what attract traders to Coinbase:

The opportunity to earn cryptocurrency while learning about trading via short videos.

It has a watchlist feature that allows investors to see price histories or receive alerts when prices go up or down.

Coinbase comes with built-in news feed that offers investors regular updates about the market

Investors can contribute to the Proof of Stake (PoS) network to earn an income on assets

It offers investors the opportunity to deposit funds from altcoin sales to PayPal.

Gemini vs. Coinbase: Supported Currencies

Both platforms accept the use of fiat currencies.  Coinbase supports the use of EUR, GBP, and USD. Gemini supports USD, AUD, CAD, EUR, GBP, SGD, and HKD.

However, Coinbase provides users with 18 more altcoins than Gemini does. Investors cannot buy Ethereum Classic (ETC), Cardano (ADA), and Dash on Gemini.

The two platforms support the following currencies; Ethereum (ETH), Aave (AAVE), Litecoin (LTC), Dai (DAI), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Chainlink (LINK), and Uniswap (UNI).

Coinbase and Gemini are constantly including more crypto options, and this makes the number of supported currencies vary.

Coinbase is available to people in more than 100 countries and Gemini is restricted to more than 50 countries.

For Coinbase, it provides 41 trading pairs for U.S. residents, while Gemini has 33 trading pairs.  The range of options for international locations and fiat currencies gives these platforms an appealing face.

Gemini vs. Coinbase: Security

Coinbase and Gemini have great security features that make them secure for investors to use them for their buying, selling, and storing cryptocurrency assets.

The following are some of the security options that are available on both platforms:

Gemini Security Features

“Hot Wallet” insurance:  The currency provides insurance on its digital assets found in investors’ Gemini Wallet or the hot wallet.

It reimburses investors for any hack, security breach, employee theft, and fraudulent transfer.  This allows investors to worry less about the safety of their digital assets.

Even when you are actively trading, you can rest assured that your assets are stored safely.

Whitelisting approved addresses: It provides users with approved address whitelisting that restricts access to addresses that withdraw your cryptocurrency.

How does this work? The address has to undergo a seven-day approval hold to ensure new addresses are vetted and approved before being approved for transfers.

Two-factor authentication: It provides users with two-factor authentication (2FA) via the Authy app or SMS.

User role management: The platform lets users add various users’ roles to their accounts. This restricts access and trading permissions for some users.

For institutional investors, this security feature is great because it allows a team takes care of their cryptocurrency investments.

Device management:  With Gemini, you can review and access your account from your device and still restrict access to unknown users.

With your device, you can log into your Gemini account.

Coinbase Security Features

Built-in wallet: Coinbase makes use of a digital wallet for storing investors’ cryptocurrency.

This helps in protecting assets with biometric access controls, password protection, and an encrypted 12-word recovery phrase.

Two-factor authentication:  It makes use of the two-factor authentication (2FA) via SMS or the Google Authenticator app.

With this security feature, you can use it on a per-trade basis and for logging in to your account.

Cold storage and crypto vaults: Do you know that Coinbase can stores 98% of cryptocurrency balances in offline cold storage?

This helps in keeping assets away from hackers and off the internet, making it one of the most secure platforms. Coinbase is among the platforms that make use of secure offline storage.

Coinbase helps in securing stored digital assets with a cryptocurrency vault that needs requires approval from multiple users to withdraw funds.

What this means is that the vaults are time-locked. Any withdrawal request will be canceled within 24 hours if approvals are not completed.

FDIC insurance (up to $250K): It provides FDIC insurance on USD (U.S. dollar) deposits.  You can enjoy insurance up to $250,000 of deposited USD funds. However, this does not insure cryptocurrency funds.

Gemini vs. Coinbase: Their Differences

Coinbase and Gemini offer similar exchanges and allow users to make use of simple methods in buying, selling, and exchanging cryptos with ease.

Here are some of the differences you should know about Gemini vs. Coinbase:

Gemini Unique Features

Earning interest on cryptocurrency: Gemini developed the Gemini Earn program that allows users which to earn interest on most cryptocurrency they offer.

Its  APYs are as high as 7.40% and vary by currency type. Most cryptos do not have this feature, as most exchanges require locking crypto away to earn interest or rewards.

Buy with cryptocurrency: Gemini offers users its Gemini Pay program that allows them to make retail purchases with cryptocurrency.

Gemini has more than 30,000 participating retailers. Users can pay with Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Gemini dollar (GUSD), Ether, Litecoin, or Zash.

This feature is available within the Gemini App and allows users to pick their retailers and cryptocurrencies to spend.

Institutional investor service: It caters to large institutional investors that want to make use of cryptocurrency. Gemini .

It also provides services to help fund managers create crypto-based funds, and function as a custodian for corporate clients and wealth managers to build a diversified crypto portfolio.

API keys: It provides users access to their API keys, which lets third-party apps to integrate with the platform

Coinbase Unique Features

Free education/free cryptocurrency: Coinbase provides short, bite-sized videos for those who want to learn cryptocurrency.

Users who can complete the cryptocurrency projects in videos earn a small amount of free cryptocurrency as a bonus.

Newsfeed: It curates online cryptocurrency articles for you to see in a newsfeed on its platform. This helps you get updated with the daily current updates on trends, and breaking news.

Price alerts: It lets users develop a watchlist of cryptocurrencies and get alerts about price changes.

Gemini vs. Coinbase: Fees

Fees are important when it comes to Coinbase and Gemini. The two platforms charge higher fees than other exchange platforms.

That means that the investor has to pay according to the method of the payment plus a convenience fee or flat fee.  Those using the Coinbase Pro account or the Gemini ActiveTrader plan pay lower fees.

Coinbase offers a slightly more complex fee structure than Gemini.

Fees	Gemini	Coinbase
Bank account	1.49%	1.49%
Wallet	1.49%	1.49%
Debit/credit cards	3.49%	3.99%
ACH transfer	Free	Free
Wire transfer	Free for up to 10 per month	$10 deposit, $25 withdrawal
Crypto conversion	Free	0.50% to 2%
Trades	A “rate of 0.50% (or 50 basis points) above the prevailing Gemini market price”	A “spread 0.50%”
Other fees	Fee of $0.99 to $2.99 based on the amount or 1.49% for trades over $200	Coinbase fee of $0.99 to $2.99 based on the amount

 

 

Gemini vs. Coinbase: Ease of Use

Most investors love using Coinbase and Gemini because they offer user-friendly web browsers and mobile application interfaces.

They also come with simple signup and trading process, and convenient educational tools.  For the mobile apps, they offer users similar to web browsers.

That helps them with high user ratings on Google and Apple app stores. The two platforms have 4.7 out of 5 stars on Apple.

Those using get frequently asked questions (FAQ) knowledge base and three webinars. Gemini exchange provides customer service via email or a web request.

The platform claims that it monitors social channels, such as Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, LinkedIn, and Instagram.  That helps users can also chat online or reach Gemini on the telephone 24/7.

Coinbase offers users a comprehensive knowledge database and a section of articles for beginners, tips and tutorials, and market updates.

You can earn more when you watch educational videos. It does not provide phone-based customer service, live chat, or monitoring of social channels.

Users can report fraud via a phone number, email the company directly, or submit an online form.

Final Verdict

The two platforms share similarities and differences.  The two provide are user-friendly and provide top-tier cryptocurrencies. They place security as one of their top priorities.

Most people love Gemini because of its most secure platform to buy and store their digital assets.

Gemini is a transparent company with regular audits by the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS).

The company observes strict compliance with U.S. regulations, making them one of the safest places to purchase cryptocurrency.

Coinbase is one of the easiest and simplest cryptocurrency platforms for beginners. That is because of its clean and friendly design and easy-to-use mobile app.

You do not struggle to use the platform. With a few clicks, a user can buy and sell cryptocurrency and Coinbase provides you with the most secure storage of your digital assets.

You should research before you pick any platform. That can help you avoid losses and make the right trading choice.