When it comes to the major cryptocurrency exchanges, Coinbase is arguably the king, while Bitpanda is one of the main insurgents that is fighting for the throne.
So, we go into another exchange comparison putting Coinbase and Bitpanda to the test and see who comes out as the winner.
Without further ado, here is our head-to-head battle Coinbase vs Bitpanda.
COINBASE VS BITPANDA: GENERAL INFORMATION
Coinbase was launched in 2012 in San Francisco, California.
As a company operating in the United States, Coinbase must comply with US laws and regulations, including state money transmission laws and regulations, the USA Patriot Act, the Bank Secrecy Act and is registered with FinCEN as a Money Services Business. These laws and regulations force accountability on Coinbase. This is something that may be lacking in some of its offshore competitors in other countries with less stringent regulations. It is widely regarded as one of the best cryptocurrency exchanges on the market.
Bitpanda is a cryptocurrency exchange that specialises in buying and selling Bitcoins worldwide, but with a special focus on the eurozone. The company was launched in late 2014 and has since seen huge growth and become one of the most popular platforms to buy Bitcoins across Europe.
BITPANDA VS COINBASE FEES
Coinbase charges around 3.99% for credit/debit card purchases and 1.49% for bank transfer purchases.
Purchase method Coinbase fees
U.S. bank account 1.49% ($0.15 minimum)
($0.15 minimum)
Coinbase wallet (U.S. dollars) 1.49% 1.49% ($0.15 minimum)
Credit card or debit card 3.99% 3.99
With Bitcoin fees at 1.49% (buy) and 1.29% (sell), Bitpanda is one of the cheapest cryptocurrency exchanges to buy and sell Bitcoin instantly.
PURCHASE LIMITS
Coinbase does not clearly define limits for new users on its site. Instead, limits may vary by country, account verification, purchase history and account age. To request higher limits you will need to verify your identity. Once you do so, a fully verified US resident can make transactions of up to $50,000 per week, while verified EU customers can have a maximum of $30,000 in their account at any one time. You can check your limits through your account.
The purchase limits depend largely on the type of account you have: whether it is slightly verified or verified. In addition, the payment method also plays an important role.
Lightly verified accounts: they cannot deposit or withdraw anything with credit cards or Zimpler. They can only use bank transfer and have a daily limit of €50k for deposit and €500k for withdrawal.
Fully verified accounts:
NETELLER and Skrill: After successful full verification, the 24-hour limit for NETELLER and Skrill deposits is 10,000 EUR and cannot be increased further.
Credit Card, iDEAL and Zimpler: After successful full verification, the 24-hour limit for credit card, iDEAL and Zimpler deposits is EUR 2,500 and cannot be increased further.
Bank transfer (SEPA): After successful full verification, the 24-hour limit for bank transfer (SEPA) deposits is EUR 49,999.
SUPPORTED COUNTRIES
Coinbase serves customers in the following countries:
Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Jersey, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, San Marino, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and the United States.
The Bitpanda Global Exchange allows worldwide crypto-to-crypto trading in 54 countries (US and China not included due to regulatory reasons). Euro fiat currency deposits directly on bitpanda Global Exchange are possible in 54 countries (entire EU plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland, Monaco, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Egypt, Georgia, Hong Kong, Israel, Jamaica, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan and Tunisia).
SUPPORTED CURRENCIES
Currently, the coins listed in its non-Pro interface include Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, USD Coin, XRP, Stellar, Zcash, 0x, Litecoin and the Basic Care Token.
Bitpanda’s coin offering continues to grow month by month. It currently supports all major coins such as Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, DASH, XRP, BCH, IOTA, EOS, ADA, Tron, LINK, BAT, Lisk, Waves, Cosmos, ETC, NEO, Tezos, ZCASH, XLM, Augur, 0x, OMG and its native tokens BEST and Pantos.
DEPOSIT AND WITHDRAWAL METHODS
Coinbase offers 3 payment methods: debit card, bank account or bank transfer. In this guide we will cover debit card or bank account purchases.
As for withdrawal methods, you have an additional way to get your money from Coinbase by using PayPal.
Verified users can use a lot of different solutions to deposit fiat money to Bitpanda. These are: SEPA, GIROPAY/EPS, iDEAL, SOFORT, NETELLER, Skrill, Zimpler, Visa and Mastercard to your Euro Wallet. Bitpanda To Go vouchers can be redeemed for cryptocurrencies directly.
Verified accounts can deposit with Skrill, Visa and Mastercard into their USD wallet.
As for withdrawals, EURO users can withdraw with SEPA, amazon.de, NETELLER and Skrill, while USD users can use Skrill.
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
Coinbase’s customer support is handled via email and, in our personal experiences, we have generally received responses from support within 24-72 hours. They also have an extensive FAQ for general questions.
Their customer support is email-based and is more or less in line with industry expectations when it comes to speed and efficiency. In other words, good enough with room for improvement.
Bitpanda has a comprehensive support helpdesk where they have tons of frequently asked questions and answers.
TRUST AND REPUTATION
Coinbase enjoys an excellent reputation and trust as a registered and regulated company with known VCs as investors, transparent team and a spotless track record (with minor and anecdotal complaints from individual customers).
Coinbase is a San Francisco-based Bitcoin company, which means it is obliged to comply with US laws and regulations at both federal and state level. Here are some of the regulatory bodies, laws and regulations that Coinbase complies with:
Complies with state money transmission laws and regulations.
Complies with the USA Patriot Act.
Complies with the Bank Secrecy Act.
It is registered with FinCEN as a money services business.
Bitpanda worked for a long time without any official license and with unclear regulatory status. However, in April 2019, Bitpanda received a Payment Services Directive 2 (PSD2) licence from the Austrian Financial Market Authority. The licence allows Bitpanda to provide payment services and new fintech services in the euro area.
SECURITY
Coinbase segregates customer funds from the company’s operating funds. These customer funds are held in custodial bank accounts. This means that they will not use your funds to operate their business. They also state: “Even if Coinbase were to become insolvent, the funds held in the escrow bank accounts could not be claimed by Coinbase or its creditors. The funds held in those accounts would be returnable to Coinbase’s customers”.
98% of customer cryptocurrency funds are stored in secure offline cold storage. These cryptocurrencies are held in multiple hardware wallets and paper wallets. Physical cryptocurrency wallets are stored in vaults and safes around the world. These measures protect customer funds from being lost or stolen by hackers.
The remaining portion of the cryptocurrency, which is stored online, is fully insured by a Lloyd’s of London syndicate.
Bitpanda likes to emphasise that they have never been hacked, implying their superior security system. The exchange has mandatory know-your-customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) verification. Cryptoassets are kept in cold storage while you personally have a couple of options to increase account security on Bitpanda by enabling 2FA and make sure to always verify that you are on the real Bitpanda site (and not some copycat scam website).
OTHER FEATURES
Coinbase has experienced rapid growth and diversified into different sectors of the cryptocurrency world with most of its new services geared towards institutional clients. Those new services are Coinbase Custody, Coinbase Prime, Coinbase Staking.
In addition, Coinbase has its Coinbase Pro platform designed for day traders and its own wallet that is also a Web3.0 browser.
Bitpanda emulates bigger players like Coinbase or Binance in many of their moves: they launched their own token with an incentive structure similar to the one Binance set up around BNB, they also launched Bitpanda staking, swaps, metals and many other services around digital assets.
COINBASE VS BITPANDA: PROS AND CONS
Advantages of Coinbase
Excellent reputation
FDIC insured
Easy to use
Very secure
Accepts credit/debit cards
Cons of Coinbase
Slow customer service
Limited currencies available
Advantages of Bitpanda
Wide variety of payment methods
Ideal for beginners
Very low fees
Great security
Website is modern, neat and fully functional
Bitpanda cons
Fees are not explicitly stated
COINBASE VS BITPANDA: CONCLUSION
So who wins the battle between Bitpanda and Coinbase?
In terms of fees, Bitpanda is better and cheaper even though they are not completely transparent about the costs of the fees (they incorporate the fees in the total amount to be paid).
In terms of supported coins, it is a tie, as both support around 15 coins, with Bitpanda having a slight advantage as they outperform Coinbase in adding new coins.
In terms of regulatory compliance and licensing: Coinbase has an advantage, but Bitpanda is also a regulated and legitimate company.
In terms of customer service: Both are of similar quality so it’s a tie.
When it comes to security in the Bitpanda vs Coinbase battle: both are top-notch with no record of security breaches, so it’s another stalemate.
Business features: Bitpanda comes out as the winner in this category as they have a more advanced business interface.
Overall reputation: another tie as both have a fairly good reputation in the crypto community with sporadic complaints from individual customers.
If you don’t like either of these exchanges, here is a list of potential alternatives: Cex.io, Coinmama Binance, Changelly, Bitfinex, Kraken, Bittrex, Bitstamp.