I Traded Crypto With Coinbase One For 7 Days. You Need To Know This Before You Sign Up

Screen shot taken by author on March 17, 2024. With blue Coinbase One logo on left. Image in upper right corner: Bitcoin Babe. 2024. Karina + StarryAI

Don’t have a Medium membership yet, but still want to read the full story? Click here: https://karinapawlak.medium.com/i-traded-crypto-with-coinbase-one-for-7-days-you-need-to-know-this-before-you-sign-up-c54434beada6?sk=1fe8ea9bcf019242ea764602c0485bd1

Why Coinbase?

In 2020 I finally decided to get in on the crypto thing. I wanted it to be easy, idiot proof, and fast.

I researched crypto exchanges. The most recommended was Binance. But I am in Canada. Due to regulations Binance left the country.

I tried Kraken. But they required passports and photo taking and retaking and some other gymnastics. The verification was never ending with yet one more step and one more retake and one more this and one more that. I ended up ditching the entire process.

I landed on Changelly. It looked simple. There was no asking for pictures or passports. “Great. I can buy Bitcoin fast without forking out personal info.” Well, it didn’t go smoothly. Changelly uses a payment service called MoonPay. It rejected my payment five times before accepting it. It charged me $8 for $50 dollars of Bitcoin. Total BS.

I read that Bitbuy has the lowest fees. Again, the sign up process appeared…