Provider at a glance
- Category
- Simple Buy
- Entity
- All 21 Coinbase products
- Official website
- help.coinbase.com
Independent rankingchecked How it works
Details
Scored 64 out of 100 under methodology 2026.10.18, from the evidence read in September 2026.
Coinbase (Simple Buy)
Simple crypto buying on Coinbase
Simple Buy
#2 Overall
Ranked #2 of 14 simple buy in the published ranking
64
ChainChoice Score
The ChainChoice Score, shown against 100: published scores run from 41 to 99.- High evidence confidence
Is Coinbase (Simple Buy) right for you?
Right for you if these matter most
- Availability & onboarding friction9/10, the category best
Look elsewhere if these come first
- All-in cost of the purchase1/10 here; Strike scores 7
- Withdrawal to self-custody4/10 here; Relai scores 10
- Custody & regulatory posture4/10 here; Relai scores 10
Not yet tested for your country. Markets it lists: Global.
to test where you can use it.
The rank above is the published one, the same for every reader. Find my best simple buy app shows where it lands for you.
What will Coinbase (Simple Buy) cost you?
Not priced on this basis
- How do you buy?
- One-time
- Amount
- $1k
How safe is Coinbase (Simple Buy)?
- Evidence: verified4 of 4 criteria rest on quoted, sourced receipts. Read September 2026.
- LicenceMiCA (EU): no register record on file here.
- On the registersNYDFS BitLicense: authorised, Coinbase, Inc. (US-NY, since 2017-01). Read 3 November 2026. Open the register
Alternatives to Coinbase (Simple Buy)
Compare all 4- 1Strike22 points above · stronger on all in cost (7 against 1)86
- 3BISON20 points below · stronger on all in cost (7 against 1)44$13
- 4Relai21 points below · stronger on withdrawal (10 against 4)43$10
For your setup
Find out if Coinbase (Simple Buy) fits you
The rank above is the published one — the same for every visitor. Answer the category's questions and this section shows where Coinbase (Simple Buy) lands for you, which criteria your answers weight up, and which stated needs the record does or does not meet. The published rank stays beside it.
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- Personalised in under 60 seconds
Find my best simple buy appNothing is inferred from clicks, popularity or commercial value.
Why this rank
Why Coinbase (Simple Buy) ranks #2
Each strength is read from evidence on a 0–10 ladder and weighted as the published methodology states. The 32 objective points these produce (13.2 here) sit inside the score; availability, friction, trust record and measured data add the rest. Best in this ranking on 1 of 4.
4 published criteria · Σ weight 100
CriterionWeightStrength · 0–10ScoreContrib.MedianBestRankEvidence
321+1.026.09#14/14Loading evidence…
264+3.334.010#7/14Loading evidence…
229+6.346.09#1/14Loading evidence…
204+2.566.010#10/14Loading evidence…
Hairline = best in this ranking · tick = its median · a missing bar is "not scored", never zero
Margin−22behind Strike, #1
RobustnessHoldsacross a one-point change to each of its 4 criterion scores, the re-run scores 63–67 and stays #2
Evidence4 of 4 scored4 quoted, 4 with a source link
What would move the rank
The ranking was run again with each of Coinbase (Simple Buy)’s criterion scores changed on its own, as far as each ladder goes in both directions. None of those changes moves its rank.
Strengths
1 from the score dataWhere it leads
Best for readers who weight
- Availability & onboarding friction — 9/10, the category best
Tradeoffs
3 from the score dataWhere it trails
Not for readers who put first
- All-in cost of the purchase — 1/10 against a category best of 9/10
- Withdrawal to self-custody — 4/10 against a category best of 10/10
- Custody & regulatory posture — 4/10 against a category best of 10/10
Record watch-outs
- Unquotable pre-trade cost combined with disclosed price discrimination.
- Full KYC including SSN in the US. Broad availability across US states and 100+ countries — the widest reach in this pool — but asset and payment-rail…
- FCA fine of GBP 3.5M (approximately $4.5M), 25 July 2024, against CB Payments Ltd — the FCA's first enforcement action against a cryptoasset firm —…
Competitive position
Where Coinbase (Simple Buy) leads and where it trails
Rank on every objective dimension among the rows scored on it. A criterion in the top third of its pool is listed as a lead, the bottom third as a trail; the middle is neither. Popularity, size and commercial terms are not dimensions.
Availability#1 / 1420.0 of 20 · pool best
Published criteria#12 / 149.9 of 30 · best 18.0
Friction#1 / 147.3 of 10 · pool best
Trust record#7 / 144.8 of 8 · best 6.4
Measured data#1 / 148.3 of 18 · constant here
Where Coinbase (Simple Buy) leads
- Availability & onboarding friction#1 / 14
Where it trails
- All-in cost of the purchase#14 / 14
- Custody & regulatory posture#10 / 14
Closest alternatives
The 3 nearest rows by score
Nearest by published score in either direction. Each card states the criteria on which the two rows differ and the cost difference under the same scenario inputs; the compare arithmetic below shows why the higher one ranks higher.
BISON#3 of 14 · score 44 · 20.0 points behind
Coinbase (Simple Buy) leads on
- Availability & onboarding friction9 vs 4
BISON leads on
- All-in cost of the purchase7 vs 1
- Withdrawal to self-custody9 vs 4
- Custody & regulatory posture7 vs 4
Largest single reason Coinbase (Simple Buy) is ahead: availability (+36.4 display points).Scenario cost: Coinbase (Simple Buy) has no verified pricing for this scenario.
Relai#4 of 14 · score 43 · 21.0 points behind
Coinbase (Simple Buy) leads on
- Availability & onboarding friction9 vs 6
Relai leads on
- All-in cost of the purchase5 vs 1
- Withdrawal to self-custody10 vs 4
- Custody & regulatory posture10 vs 4
Largest single reason Coinbase (Simple Buy) is ahead: availability (+36.4 display points).Scenario cost: Coinbase (Simple Buy) has no verified pricing for this scenario.
Strike#1 of 14 · score 86 · 22.0 points ahead
Coinbase (Simple Buy) leads onNo scored criterion
Strike leads on
- All-in cost of the purchase7 vs 1
- Withdrawal to self-custody8 vs 4
- Custody & regulatory posture6 vs 4
Largest single reason Strike is ahead: published criteria (+21.1 display points).Scenario cost: Strike has no verified pricing for this scenario.
Against the leader
86 vs 64 · gap 22.0Why Strike ranks above Coinbase (Simple Buy)
The compare workspace's arithmetic applied to these two rows. Each dimension's share of the gap is its weight × the difference, on the displayed scale — it reproduces the displayed gap of 22.0 to within rounding. Coinbase (Simple Buy) is ahead on friction (+1.6 in its favour).
DimensionThisStrikeGap share
Availability · 23% weight20.020.0same
Published criteria · 35% weight9.918.0−21.1, worse
Friction · 12% weight7.36.7+1.6, better
Trust record · 9% weight4.85.6−2.1, worse
Measured data · 21% weight · constant here8.38.3same
Published criterionThisStrikePoints
All-in cost of the purchase · w3217−6.14, worse
Withdrawal to self-custody · w2648−3.33, worse
Custody & regulatory posture · w2046−1.28, worse
Net6486−22.0
Your scenario
Coinbase (Simple Buy) is not priced for this scenario
Instant-buy spread on what you buy: on one purchase, or for a year of purchases or of trading. Fixed purchase fees and deposit fees are not published as fields yet, so they are excluded, as are network gas and any withdrawal fee. Change an input and every figure recomputes from the published rate; the published rank does not move.
cost on your amount · default scenario — set your own
How do you buy?
How do you buy? · your inputOne-time
Amount · your input$1k
Rate read from the provider’s published pricing ↗ on 14 September 2026.
cost on your amountCost is stated as cost on your amount in USD; it is never a yield, never annualised, and it does not enter the score.
Not priced on this basis
Under the default inputs · USDCategory median$1110 of 14 rows priced
Cheapest priced$1.50 · FinstDifference not stated · availability not applied — set your country to filterCompare with Finst
4 of 14 rows in this ranking have no verified rate for this scenario and are absent from the median, not counted as free.
Evidence
Evidence read 14 September 2026
One row per published criterion: the page each strength was read from, its source type by domain, the reading date and whether the file and the published table agree. Open a row for the quote and the receipt.
4 of 4 cells scored
Score evidenceVerified4 of 4 criteria reconstruct from receipts
4 of 4 criteria reconstruct from a quoted, sourced receipt equal to the published strength.Public receiptsReading…4 quoted with a source URL
The receipt file has not been read yet.Evidence confidenceHighcoverage and corroboration, never freshness
4/4 criteria scored, with 4 dated sources quoted.RobustnessHoldsrank #2 across every one-point re-run
Whether the position holds when one criterion score is changed by one point and the ranking is run again. It is always a re-run of the ranking, never an estimate.The newest evidence read on the platform is 3 November 2026; this category's reading is older. The scores stand as read on 14 September 2026.
Reading the evidence ledger…
CriterionSourceTypeReadFreshnessStatusReceipt
All-in cost of the purchasestrength 1 · weight 32Report an error—14 September 2026*
Unknown
No reading date is recorded for this cell or its category.No receipt
A strength is published but no quote or source page is on file for it.Withdrawal to self-custodystrength 4 · weight 26Report an error—14 September 2026*
Unknown
No reading date is recorded for this cell or its category.No receipt
A strength is published but no quote or source page is on file for it.Availability & onboarding frictionstrength 9 · weight 22Report an error—14 September 2026*
Unknown
No reading date is recorded for this cell or its category.No receipt
A strength is published but no quote or source page is on file for it.Custody & regulatory posturestrength 4 · weight 20Report an error—14 September 2026*
Unknown
No reading date is recorded for this cell or its category.No receipt
A strength is published but no quote or source page is on file for it.How you can lose money here, and what the ranking scores
- Custody failure (Coinbase (Simple Buy) 4/10): whoever holds the assets loses or withholds them.Scored by Custody & regulatory posture · 20%
- Exit failure (Coinbase (Simple Buy) 4/10): you cannot get out at par, on time, or with what is yours.Scored by Withdrawal to self-custody · 26%
Not assessed by this ranking: Control failure, Liveness failure, Insolvency failure, Regulatory failure, Execution failure, Information failure. A high place says nothing about these; the Methodology tab says what each means. Also scored, as cost, quality or a summary of several families: All-in cost of the purchase (32%), Availability & onboarding friction (22%).
Facts
facts, not scoresWhat the record publishes
- Pricing
- Not readable on 2026-10-28: Help.coinbase.com and coinbase.com (fees disclosure, about, user agreement) answered HTTP 403, a bot wall, on 28 October 2026, so the figures below are the last ones read. Last readable on 2026-09-14: Re-read 14 September 2026 from Coinbase's own 'pricing and fees disclosures' page, rendered in a browser. No numeric fee or spread is published for a simple market buy. Fees 'are calculated at the time you place your order and can be influenced by factors such as your chosen payment method, order size, market conditions, jurisdictional location, asset, and other costs we incur to facilitate your transaction'. Also: 'Coinbase may retain any excess spread from a transaction', 'the spread may vary for similar transactions', and 'Coinbase occasionally tests changes to fees and spread'. The spread can be checked before committing: 'You can see the spread in the order preview screen.' Simple limit orders carry 'a separate limit order execution fee equal to 1% of the amount you trade', and 'Coinbase may also charge a 1.875% Coinbase fee (varies by payment method)'. 'No spread is included for Coinbase Advanced because you're interacting directly with the order book.' Ancillary rates: Lightning send 0.2%; USDT withdrawal 0.01% capped at 20 USDT; 2% fee on BTC collateral sales; 5% recovery fee on value above $100.Coinbase (Simple Buy) — verified source ↗ · 14 September 2026
- Prices published in
- USDCoinbase (Simple Buy) — verified source ↗ · 14 September 2026
- Licences held
- Not published
- Compliance level
- partial
- Regulatory note
- Not published
- Supported chains
- Bitcoin, Ethereum
- Markets served
- global
- Primary markets
- Global
- Restricted markets
- Not published
- Operating limits
- Full KYC including SSN in the US. Broad availability across US states and 100+ countries — the widest reach in this pool — but asset and payment-rail availability is jurisdiction-specific.
- Availability note
- Full KYC including SSN in the US. Broad availability across US states and 100+ countries — the widest reach in this pool — but asset and payment-rail availability is jurisdiction-specific.
Legal entity on file: Coinbase, placed in 21 products. Only confirmed entities are shown; nothing is inferred from the brand name.
If something goes wrong with Coinbase (Simple Buy): where to complain, and where to report a scam
Loading the routes for your country.
How this page is reviewed
Reviewed means this product in this category was read against its sources on or after that date; every ranked category is re-read at least every 45 days. Models research, extract and parse. A deterministic engine ranks. Every quote passes an adversarial refute pass.
Accountable for this review: Mathias Siemonsmeier, Founder.
How we review · Review calendar · Corrections log · How we make money
History
What the record carries
Changes to published ranks are recorded in a ledger; every step and its cause is listed on the rank-history page. The entries below begin with the current verified snapshot, then the methodology versions whose changes applied to this category, newest first.
11 methodology entries
- 14 September 2026Current verified snapshot · methodology 2026.10.18Score 64, #2 of 14. 4 of 4 criteria scored. History starts here; earlier values are not interpolated.
- 10 October 2026
2026.10.8When nothing serves your country, the list shown for reference is the published ranking · platform-wide- fixed The reference list shown when nothing serves your country is the published order with the published scores, and a build check now fails any such list out of that order or with a score the ranking does not publish.
- fixed The explorer prints an overall rank only for a row the published ranking holds; a country entrant such as Coinbase Commerce for US merchants shows no overall rank.
- changed Published orders do not move. Country results change only where nothing serves the country: in India bill pay keeps Bitcoin Well first and now shows Strike second, as published; 35 such runs across all categories and countries now match the published list exactly.
- 10 October 2026
2026.10.6A criterion you require re-scores the rows that meet it · platform-wide- changed The explorer sends each criterion you require, at any band, as fit_required with your other answers; region, licence, chain and fact filters stay filters. On /best, a required criterion joins For you as a marked preference does, which needs your country; Overall stays the published ranking, filtered.
- added Every published criterion has a golden case as the explorer sends it (require:<criterion>), so the order a requirement gives is replayed and gated as the published order is, and a change to it needs an entry here.
- 16 September 2026
2026.09.15Dimension scores carry tenths, and eleven more categories are re-read from primary sources · platform-wide- changed Dimension scores resolve to tenths of a point (O-04b), and weightedTotal is rounded to six decimal places before the order is read. 518 published scores move across 107 categories that were not re-read; none of them moves by more than 4 points, and most move by 1.
- fixed 66 published scores change in the eleven re-read categories, against a verbatim source each. The largest moves are Reflexer RAI (−16), Beefy and Unrekt (−11), Aztec (−10) and Golem (+9) — all of them rows whose sources had moved since their last read.
- changed Published order moves in 38 of 119 categories and three #1s change: smart_contract_audits (Zellic → Certora) and travel_rule_compliance (Sumsub Travel Rule → CodeVASP) on the finer resolution, kyc_compliance (Veriff → Sumsub) on the re-read.
- added availabilitySource (O-04g): for a reader who states a country, a row whose availability in that country rests on a region tag its record gives no source for sorts below every sourced row. It is inert in every order published here, which states no country.
Methodology 2026.10.18, the same published run every visitor sees · receipt simple_buy:coinbase-simple-buy:2026.10.18:a7c3fbcddd25
Are you Coinbase (Simple Buy)? Reply to this verdict, or send evidence, ask for a correction or claim the listing. Every message gets a public ticket number; none of it changes a rank unless a public page or a signed statement supports it.