Coinbase

Score breakdown

Scores follow our public methodology — fees 30%, platforms 20%, trust 25%, markets 15%, support 10%. How we score

The listed exchange

Coinbase is the crypto exchange with the most to lose from getting things wrong. Founded in 2012 and listed on Nasdaq (COIN) since April 2021, it joined the S&P 500 in May 2025 and files audited accounts with the US Securities and Exchange Commission every year. No other exchange we score operates under that level of public disclosure, and for a first-time buyer in the UK that is the main reason to choose it.

The UK business sits in one company, CB Payments Ltd, which trades as Coinbase. Its UK user agreement, last updated on 22 July 2026, sets out three FCA permissions: authorisation as an e-money institution (register number 900635), registration for cryptoasset activities under the Money Laundering Regulations (same number), and, since July 2026, authorisation as a MiFID investment firm (register number 1045733). That last permission is new, and it is what lets Coinbase sell US stocks to UK retail clients.

The case against Coinbase is cost and support. Simple buys are priced with a spread and a fee you only see at preview, and the support operation was the weak point in the biggest incident in its history. Both are covered below.

Opening an account and making the first buy

Sign-up runs through the app or website: email, phone number, photo ID and a selfie, then the FCA’s mandatory crypto appropriateness questions and a 24-hour cooling-off period for new investors. Coinbase shows the FCA’s standard risk warning throughout: don’t invest unless you are prepared to lose all the money you invest.

Once verified, you fund the account in pounds into an e-money balance held by CB Payments, then buy. Coinbase’s pricing disclosure says funding fees depend on the payment method you choose and are shown before you confirm, so check the line item when you use a card rather than a bank transfer.

The first buy is where Coinbase earns its reputation. You choose an asset, enter a pound amount, and the preview screen shows the price, the spread and the Coinbase fee before you confirm. Nothing on the market is simpler for a beginner.

Fees: two prices for the same coin

Coinbase effectively runs two pricing systems on one account, and the difference is large enough to matter.

Coinbase’s own pricing page states that the spread “may vary for similar transactions”, that Coinbase may keep any excess spread, and that it tests fee and spread changes by region and order size. In practice that means the cost of a simple buy is something you see, not something you can look up in advance. Coinbase Advanced, which uses the same login and balance, removes the spread entirely because you trade directly on the order book.

The Advanced rates above come from Coinbase’s September 2026 fee update as reported by Investing.com, which we could not confirm on a Coinbase page from the UK; check the fee shown in Advanced before trading. If they hold, Coinbase Advanced is cheaper at entry level than Kraken Pro, which charges 0.40% maker and 0.80% taker (see the Kraken review). Binance remains cheaper again at 0.1% spot. Coinbase also says it has no payment for order flow arrangements, and that every trade from your balance goes through Coinbase Exchange’s order book.

Our fee score of 7.6 reflects that split: Advanced is competitive, but most beginners use the simple route, and that route costs more than it looks.

The app, Advanced and the rest of the account

The Coinbase app is the reference design for consumer crypto: a clean portfolio view, price alerts, recurring buys and clear transaction history. Coinbase Advanced adds order books, charting, limit and stop orders and API access without a second account. The Base App is a separate self-custody wallet for anyone who wants to hold their own keys. Together they earn the platform score of 8.9, the highest among the exchanges we rate.

Coinbase has also become more than a crypto exchange for UK users:

• US stocks. From 6 August 2026 Coinbase began rolling out commission-free trading in nearly 4,000 US stocks to UK users in stages, with fractional shares from £1 and trading 24 hours a day, five days a week. The Block reports that orders are executed by Coinbase Capital Markets and the shares are held in the US by Apex Clearing. There is no ISA, no UK shares and no pension, so a UK investor building a long-term portfolio is still better served by Trading 212 or Freetrade.
• GBP savings. An instant-access savings account held with ClearBank, launched in November 2025 at 3.75% AER and advertised at 3.50% AER (variable) when we checked in October 2026. Because the money sits with a bank, it is FSCS-protected, unlike your crypto.
• Derivatives. Perpetual and listed futures exist, but under the user agreement crypto-based futures and perpetuals are available only to clients categorised as professional. Retail UK clients cannot trade them, in line with the FCA’s ban.

The crypto range covers hundreds of assets, which is fewer than Binance or OKX but includes everything most UK buyers are looking for. Our market score of 8.6 counts the stock offering in Coinbase’s favour.

Safety, and the risk notes that matter

Trust is Coinbase’s strongest pillar, and our 9.2 score reflects a listed, audited parent and three FCA permissions in one UK entity. Two episodes keep it below Kraken’s 9.5.

In July 2024 the FCA fined CB Payments £3,503,546, its first enforcement action under the Electronic Money Regulations. A restriction agreed in 2020 barred the firm from taking on new high-risk customers; the FCA found it had onboarded or provided e-money services to 13,416 of them anyway, and that the breaches went undetected for almost two years. The FCA said the investigation did not examine any cryptoasset transactions.

In May 2025 Coinbase disclosed that criminals had bribed overseas support contractors to steal customer data, including names, addresses and emails, for use in impersonation scams. No passwords or login credentials were taken. Coinbase refused a $20 million ransom, offered a $20 million reward instead, said it would reimburse customers tricked into sending funds, and estimated the cost at $180 million to $400 million.

The risk notes every UK customer should read:

• Crypto is not FSCS-protected. The UK user agreement says so in as many words: your digital assets and e-money are not protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. E-money is safeguarded in segregated accounts, which keeps it away from Coinbase’s creditors, but the agreement itself warns that distributing safeguarded funds may take longer than an FSCS claim.
• Crypto custody sits with an affiliate. The agreement describes Coinbase, Inc., a Delaware company, as the group entity providing digital asset storage and wallet services.
• FSCS cover for stocks is narrow. The agreement says FSCS compensation may be available for the investment services CB Payments itself provides, but not for services provided by Coinbase affiliates, including execution and custody.

None of that is unusual for crypto, but it is the opposite of the protection people expect from a UK bank or ISA.

Support

Support runs through the help centre and in-app chat, and Coinbase One lists 24/7 priority support as a member benefit, which tells you where standard customers sit in the queue. The May 2025 breach came through the support operation itself, and our 7.4 support score reflects both that and the contrast with Kraken’s human-staffed 24/7 desk. Education is a strength: Coinbase’s Learn section is one of the clearer beginner libraries in crypto.

Verdict

8.4 / 10. For a UK beginner who wants to buy a first coin from a listed, FCA-registered company, Coinbase is the safest easy choice, and the app is the best in the industry. The cost is real, though: use Coinbase Advanced rather than the buy button as soon as you buy more than occasionally. If security record and human support matter more than brand, Coinbase vs Kraken sets out why Kraken still edges it; if you want the widest coin list and the lowest fees, read Coinbase vs Binance. For the full ranking, see Best crypto exchanges.

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