Highlights
- The cryptocurrency market in Australia is gaining momentum with increasing number of investors looking to invest in the digital asset.
- However, for new investors, choosing the appropriate exchange may become difficult.
- Founded in 2013, CoinSpot is Australia’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange.
The cryptocurrency market in Australia is gaining momentum with a greater number of investors looking to invest in the new asset class. However, for new investors, it may be difficult to choose the appropriate exchange as the number of available exchanges is also growing. In this article, we are going to make the task easy for investors by comparing Coinbase and CoinSpot, two of the most popular crypto exchanges available in Australia.
Founded in 2013, CoinSpot has grown over the years to become Australia’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange. It rose to prominence as one of the most user-friendly and secure crypto platforms as it makes buying, selling and storing cryptocurrency simpler for investors.
Meanwhile, U.S.-based Coinbase is one of the biggest crypto exchanges available in the world. Formed in 2012, the company offers a user-friendly and secure platform to access a wide range of cryptocurrencies.
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Let’s look at some of the distinguishing features of CoinSpot and Coinbase.
Wallet
CoinSpot
- You can trade and deposit conveniently and quickly with most listed assets using automated wallet services.
- Instantly deposit in AUD using various rapid and free deposit methods such as POLi and PayID.
- For a nominal fee, you can also deposit using BPAY or cash at thousands of BlueShyft locations throughout Australia.
- Extra security services like account-wide withdrawal bans and two-factor authentication are available to safeguard your assets.
Coinbase
- All your NFTs and cryptos are kept at one place.
- On a browser or phone, you can explore the decentralised web.
- Over 4,000 assets and a plethora of dapps are supported.
Security
CoinSpot
- CoinSpot adheres to the industry’s best practices by keeping most assets in very secure offline locations.
- To strengthen the account’s security, CoinSpot offers a suite of customisable account security settings, including session timeout limit settings, custom withdrawal restrictions and two-factor authentication.
Coinbase
- Customers’ funds are kept offline in 98% of the cases. Offline storage is a vital security strategy in the event of loss or theft.
- Coinbase distributes Bitcoins in vaults and safe deposit boxes all over the world.
CoinSpot or Coinbase: Which crypto exchange is suitable for Australians?
Fee
As far as payment options and the fee structure are concerned, CoinSpot seems to be better for Australians as it accepts the AUD as its only fiat currency and its fees are reasonable as well. In comparison, Coinbase offers limited deposit methods and supports only direct debit or cryptocurrency deposits. It operates differently from most other exchanges as users are not required to add funds to open an account. Here you have to pay using your debit card. If you want to use a credit card, then you have to pay a very high fee of 3.99% on every transaction. Also, Coinbase charges 0.5% as the trading fee for each transaction.
CoinSpot fee structure
Data Source: Coinspot
Coinbase fee/payment options
There is no signup fee or yearly fee for the Coinbase Card. Coinbase allows users to borrow up to US$1 million using their Bitcoin as collateral by paying just 8% interest annually without any credit check.
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