Founded in 2012 by Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam as part of Ycombinator, Coinbase is one of the oldest exchanges around. Coinbase has started out only as a Bitcoin brokerage service (selling Bitcoins directly to customers), but additional services were added along the way. Coinbase is fully regulated and licensed. The company has raised over $540m from leading investors such as Andreessen Horowitz, Rabbit Capital and Intercontinental Exchange (the owners of the New York Stock Exchange). Coinbase became the first publicly-traded cryptocurrency exchange in the US in April 2021, through its initial public offering (IPO).

Staking Service:

One of Coinbase’s other features is an easy-to-use staking service, which enables users to earn staking rewards on selected Proof-of-Stake cryptocurrencies. Although users may have the option of staking these independently, Coinbase streamlines the process and removes any need for technical expertise or specialized hardware.

Coinbase Wallet:

In 2018 Coinbase launched their independent mobile wallet for iOS and Android. The wallet stores the private keys on the user’s device, so only they have access to the funds. This brings Coinbase full circle, since it started out as a wallet, transitioned to an exchange only (claiming that they are not a wallet) and now they are offering wallet services again.

Coinbase Commerce:

Coinbase supplies online merchants with the ability to accept cryptocurrencies on their website via a dedicated plugin. The plugin is supported by some of the biggest CMS (content management systems) around such as Shopify, Magento and WooCommerce.


Aside from the above, Coinbase supplies additional services such as:

* USD Coin (USDC) – A stablecoin Coinbase helped build.
* Custodian services – Safeguarding cryptocurrencies for institutional investors.
* Earn.com – A service acquired by Coindesk for filtering out spam emails.
* Coinbase Ventures – Investing in companies that are building the open financial system.
* Coinbase Card – A debit card that enables users to spend crypto and earn crypto rewards.
* Coinbase Borrow – Borrow fiat currency using BTC as collateral.