Unpopular Opinion: CoinBase and CoinBase Pro are good exchanges and OK to hold crypto in

I see all the time “Don’t hold money in an exchange!!” Or “Not your keys, not your crypto!!” and what not all over r/CC.

I’d like to lay out some personal pros and cons for CoinBase.

CoinBase advantages:

• They let you transfer some coins WITHOUT fees. I am able to turn my mined ETH to most other crypto without it costing me anything! I can even turn it into some stable coins (like DAI) without fees! With ETH gas fees so high, this is HUGE.

• CoinBase owns over 970,000 BTC. This creates a physical backing for the BTC you have in CoinBase.

• Even if you store your crypto offline, you’ll eventually have to move it to an exchange to sell or use it. (In the USA, the IRS does not allow for the transaction of crypto outside exchanges)

• CoinBase is about to release their IPO soon making their business practices fall under SEC regulation. This helps me feel confident that the company is less likely to do shady stuff if they have to answer to the US gov and shareholders

CoinBase disadvantages:

• Customer service is slow. I didn’t receive my 5 dollar BTC verification bonus and had to file a support ticket. It took about a week for them to process my ticket and give me my money. Unfortunately, most exchanges have similar reputations for customer service.

• Fees for cashing in or out are high for CoinBase (fairly good for CoinBase Pro though!)

• If you are the “bury gold in the back yard bc you don’t trust banks” type, then you won’t like that you don’t actually own the keys for the crypto you own

Conclusion:

I’m not saying other exchanges are bad (I’ve heard good things about Kraken and such) but I’m saying we can’t be too afraid of exchanges either. If you’re holding hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of crypto, I can see why you may want additional levels of security for your assets. However the vast majority of us are only dealing in the 10’s, 100’s or 1000’s of dollars worth of crypto making it easier (and imo smarter) to hold it on an exchange like CoinBase.