Cointext lists the best alternatives to using Coinbase for trading cryptocurrencies and finding great trading opportunities
Coinbase has established itself as one of the largest and most accessible crypto exchanges on the market, having added numerous products and services to its platform — such as its new visa debit card.
However, there has been controversy surrounding the platform, due to their recent declaration that its employees cannot discuss any political views in the workplace, adding that those that don’t like it are free to leave.
Here we outline the top 3 alternative exchanges to Coinbase that traders can make use of to diversify their choices and options when trading and investing in cryptocurrencies.
Binance
By many accounts, the largest exchange in the world, Binance supports loads more coins than Coinbase, making it the ideal platform for hunting down altcoin opportunities that are reasonably well-established.
Offering a range of products, such as margin trading, mining pools, Bitcoin saving accounts, a Binance debit card, crypto loans and liquidity pool offerings, Binance has done a fantastic job of expanding its offerings and reinvesting its profits to make its platform world-leading.
The firm has launched an acquisitions campaign earlier this year, buying up the data-platform CoinMarketCap, as well as joining the board of Switch to further its interests in rolling out debit card products.
The firm has also faced recent controversy over its handling of US regulations, with allegations from leaked documents outlining Binance’s plan to sidestep regulations in the US by funneling its funds through a third-party. The exchange’s CEO, CZ Changpang refuted the findings, claiming that it was just a strategy document and that no attempt had been made to put the plan into action.
Much of this could be said to be the fault of US authorities, who some argue have dragged their feet over creating more friendly regulations for the crypto space.
Uniswap
Entirely built on the Ethereum blockchain, this platform is where Ethereum holders can make token swaps with their ETH for DeFi and ETH based ERC-20 tokens.
Despite not being an exchange in the same sense as Binance and Coinbase, Uniswap occupies an important space in the crypto market by providing a place for new tokens and projects to receive funding in the form of ETH in exchange for trading discounted tokens from their project.
This makes Uniswap integral for both new projects and for savvy investors that are willing to wait for up to a year or two to see a return on their investment.
Unlike Coinbase and any of the other exchanges discussed here, Uniswap is completely decentralized and features no order book or a centralised entity that processes trades.
Token sales are facilitated by smart contracts that determine how many tokens can be sold and for and at what price, allowing buyers to fulfil the contract and receive the tokens, in a completely automated way.
In many ways , Uniswap is the best representation of an exchange that embodies the values of cryptocurrency by using a decentralised distribution model to allow for the “peer-to-peer electronic transfer” that Satoshi envisioned in Bitcoin’s whitepaper.
eToro
As one of the best established exchanges to offer cryptocurrency, having been founded in 2007, eToro features some great educational material for new traders that are looking to learn the ropes, as well as copy trader services, whereby a user’s trading account will copy any trades made by a trader they follow on the platform.
As well as this, unlike Coinbase, eToro also offers a number of other financial instruments that can be traded beyond just cryptocurrency, such as stocks, commodities and currencies — making it a much better platform for traders who are looking to find opportunities in other markets.
eToro also offers leveraged and margin trading that allow you to maximise your profits, meaning good returns can be made on a limited investment amount. On the flipside however, this means that losses are also compounded and made worse too.
eToro also offers CFDs (contracts for difference) that allow users to trade on the price movements of the market without owning the underlying asset. CFDs are useful for a multitude of reasons, but have faced criticism from regulators, such as the FCA in the UK who will impose a ban on the products in January 2021.