Is Coinbase Safe and Legitimate for Storing Crypto?

Coinbase has become a shirt sponsor for the Esports team, Evil Geniuses, to get exposure in another rapidly growing industry in recent months.

Is Coinbase Safe?

However, many people are still skeptical about cryptocurrencies and Bitcoin, often associating the space with scams, money laundering, and other illicit activities. However, there are limits put in place on how much you can spend or withdraw, which may be considered a positive for some users. Coinbase Pro provides tools only reserved to traders, including charting software with trading indicators, a real-time updated order book, and margin trading with up to 3x leverage. Coinbase is also an official sponsor of the NBA and WNBA, the professional basketball leagues in the US.

In the case of US clients whose funds are held as cash, those funds are maintained in pooled custodial accounts in institutions that are FIDC-insured. Coinbase utilizes a broad range of advanced protocols to shield sensitive personal data from unauthorized use and to protect valuable assets from theft. As cryptocurrency continues to take the world by storm, competition among crypto exchanges is growing fiercer as they all vie for the business of crypto investors all over the globe. From the Coinbase app or site, you can view your crypto balance and set a watchlist of tokens you want to buy or sell.

But, as the 2021 Coinbase hack showed, user accounts on the crypto exchange are not completely safe from hacking. If sophisticated hackers gain access to your personal information — such as your address, passwords, and phone number — they may be able to gain access to your account, even without hacking Coinbase’s systems. Coinbase has over 40 licenses to operate in the US, and it is licensed to operate in an additional 31 countries.

1. However, additional verification steps reinforce their aim of having legitimate, genuine users.
2. Aside from the high value of the cryptocurrencies themselves, there is also the notoriety that comes with successfully defeating advanced security measures like those on Coinbase.
3. The Delaware-based firm uses more encryption on its website, and mobile apps and hashes account passwords using bcrypt before storage to ensure safe purchases.
4. Coinbase is one of the most popular crypto apps and websites, and it’s used to trade over 150 decentralized cryptocurrencies thanks to its ease of use, quick withdrawals, and generally strong security.

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Coinbase also uses 2-factor authentication (2FA) for logins and other actions within the site, which greatly reduces the likelihood of an account being compromised. Coinbase is the largest US-based cryptocurrency exchange and one of the biggest crypto trading platforms in the world, but the company was hacked in 2021. Learn about Coinbase’s security strengths and weaknesses and how a dedicated secure browser can help protect you online.

Can you Lose Money on Coinbase?

However, if you lose your master password (a series of 12 words), you will have no way to access your crypto. As a US-based, financial services company, Coinbase is subject to a wide range of SEC regulations and can be held accountable if something goes wrong. Brands based in other countries may not be held to the same regulatory standards. For fiat currencies that are held in Coinbase wallets, those funds are pooled together and held in custodial accounts in US banks, US Treasuries, or money market funds where permitted.

Moreover, Coinbase keeps its assets insured, so technically you cannot lose any of your money through hacking or theft. It has high security standards to protect users’ data, and it implements the latest tech solutions to support a highly-regulated platform. The reality is though, no crypto exchange can claim to be 100% secure against security threats, no matter what the form of the attack. Coinbase has implemented rigid security procedures to verify user identity and coinabj prevent fraudulent activity. And yet, in 2021, hackers famously breached the accounts of approximately 6,000 Coinbase users and made off with their cryptocurrency holdings. Due to their enhanced security measures and insured offline holdings, Coinbase has a user-base of over 68 million users and is one of the safest and most legitimate crypto exchanges on the market today.