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Coinbase vs Gemini
Two US-regulated exchanges with a similar pitch. Gemini holds a New York trust charter, which is a higher regulatory bar than a money-transmitter licence.
Both links below are affiliate links — what that means. It does not change what is written here; every entry carries a drawback for the same reason.
Short answer
Choose Coinbase if…Almost everyone. Deeper liquidity, a larger asset list, and a public company behind it.
Visit Coinbase →Choose Gemini if…You are in New York and need a venue licensed for it, or the trust-company structure specifically matters to you. Its Earn programme froze funds in the 2022 Genesis collapse — worth knowing even though that product is gone.
Visit Gemini →Side by side
| What is being compared | Coinbase | Gemini |
|---|---|---|
| Launched | 2012 | 2014 |
| Based / registered | United States — publicly listed on Nasdaq | United States — a New York trust company |
| Who holds the assets | Custodial, with a separate self-custody wallet app | Custodial |
| Identity verification | Required, always | Required |
| Available to US residents | Yes — this is its home market, and it is the most straightforward option for US residents | Yes, including New York, which several competitors cannot serve |
| Products |
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What each one is actually good at
CoinbaseA US public company filing audited accounts every quarter. For anyone whose first question is counterparty risk rather than cost, nothing else on this list answers it as directly.
Worth knowing. The simple buy/sell interface is materially more expensive than Advanced Trade for the same trade. People pay several times what they need to for years without noticing the two are different products.
GeminiRegulated as a New York trust company, which is a genuinely higher bar than a money-transmitter licence and the reason it can operate where others cannot.
Worth knowing. Its Earn programme froze customer funds in the 2022 Genesis collapse and took years to resolve. That product is gone, but it is the right thing to know about the company's history.
What about the fees?
We do not print a fee table, and the reason is not laziness. Fee schedules change without notice — Kraken rebuilt its tier system in July 2026 — and a stale number on a page that earns from its links is worse than no number at all. So here are both live schedules, from the source:
Once you have both numbers, the trading fee calculator turns them into what a year of your actual trading would cost — which is the number that decides this, not the headline rate.
Before you commit
Availability changes. Regulators bar platforms, platforms withdraw from markets, and this page was last checked on 2026-08-05 — confirm on the platform’s own terms that it serves your country before you sign up.
And whichever you pick: an exchange balance is a trading float, not storage. Anything you are not actively trading belongs in a wallet you hold the keys to.