Gemini vs. Coinbase - Which is Better for You? [2022]

Both Gemini and Coinbase are respectable Crypto exchanges in our view, however they are quite similar and in our opinion there are better alternatives to both of them — such as Voyager.

Personally we have accounts with both Gemini and Coinbase as they’re both good trustworthy exchanges, and we use them both for large purchases of cryptocurrency — but being honest most people aren’t doing large-volume wire-transfers and thus neither of these exchanges really have any benefit over lower-cost commission-free Crypto-Exchanges such as Voyager –because of this we think Voyager is better for most folks.

To sum up this article: Both Coinbase and Gemini are very similar, relatively good exchanges with nearly identical features — however Coinbase has slightly better features, albeit still not impressive compared to some other Crypto-Exchanges such as Voyager.

You can check out our article comparing both Gemini vs Voyager and Coinbase vs Voyager to get a better idea of what we mean and why we are mentioning Voyager right-off the bat like this — but essentially they have a Coinbase like interface (user-friendly) with lower fees as well as interest on cryptos you hold within the account, while neither Coinbase or Gemini provide interest on most deposits with them.

With that being said we think Coinbase or Gemini can be better for certain types of people, especially high-net worth people who want to buy large volumes with fiat ($10,000+ in a week), we’ll explain more below.

Which has less fees - Gemini or Coinbase?

This Category is a bit of a draw — Neither Coinbase or Gemini are low-cost brokers with competitive exchange fees. Instead they’re exchanges that focus on user-interface and marketing to newbies to maximize their profit margins. Ultimately this is great for, well, Coinbase and Gemini — but not the best for users.

In the end this means paying a commission/spread of between 1.5% and 6% or so depending on how much you buy/sell in one trade on each exchange, and both exchanges appear to charge the exact same fees as one another.

If you don’t want to pay these outrageous fees we’d say Voyager is the best option to avoid them — they’re a commission-free crypto broker. In practice due to their spreads the commission-rate they charge is around 0.3% — which is still better than pretty much any other fiat on-ramp, and they even have a $25 sign-up bonus.

Which Offers the Best Yields - Gemini or Coinbase?

Coinbase wins this category slightly — We always include this category in comparisons because most exchanges have the ability for you to stake or loan out your cryptocurrency and earn a yield on it — well neither Coinbase nor Gemini really allows this currently, they likely do so and simply keep the funds.

Which Has The Best Signup Bonus Offers - Gemini or Coinbase?

Coinbase may have a slight edge in this category — We say this because Coinbase and Gemini offer the same base sign-up promotion, $10 after buying or selling $100 or more of Cryptocurrency within 30 days of signing up to their exchange — but Coinbase also has an “earn” section that can net you $100+ extra in rewards.

To receive these bonuses you simply have to be referred by someone to the exchange — You can be referred to Gemini by us by clicking here, and you can be referred to Coinbase by us by clicking here — if you have friends who already use the exchange you can also ask them to refer you — it’s up to you.

Which is more Trustworthy - Gemini or Coinbase?

This is pretty much a draw — Although we personally prefer and trust Gemini more, this is simply because we dislike that Coinbase has openly cooperated and given full-access to tax-authorities in various jurisdictions. While Gemini has surely done the same, and will cooperate just as well, Coinbase seems to pride it’s self on that, and to me I just don’t like a company that cozies up to the US government.

Other than that personal gripe, both Gemini and Coinbase are quite literally the most top-notch of top-notch exchanges in terms of trustworthiness and safety — they don’t have any shadiness about them. They’ve got insurance against loss, they are huge multi-million dollar companies, they’ve been around for many many years, they have amazing teams, they use multi-sig cold storage for the majority of assets held by them (the gold standard), etc, etc, etc — they’re both definitely trustworthy.

What Advantages does Gemini have over Coinbase?

Honestly the only benefit is I personally trust them slightly more — otherwise they don’t seem to have anything better than coinbase, albeit they aren’t really much/any worse than Coinbase. I thought they’d be better than Coinbase to be honest, but ultimately it’s not.

Regardless if you want to just snag the easy $10 signup bonus or simply hate Coinbase, feel free to get referred by us so you can be eligible for the $10 sign-up bonus Gemini offers new users who buy/sell $100+ of Cryptocurrency within 30 days of account opening. Or just hit up Voyager for $25 for the same requirements and have a better exchange overall (see our Coinbase vs Voyager comparison here).

What Advantages does Coinbase have over Gemini?

Coinbase has a marginally better sign-up bonus and at least offers yield on Tezos and USDC, but ultimately is otherwise identical to Gemini — because of this while we’d say Coinbase is probably the better choice of the two it’s not really a big deal which you choose.

Personally we choose to use Voyager for most of our daily purchases and only use Gemini or Coinbase for large purchases made with Wire-transfer (as Voyager doesn’t have that option unless you contact support), but if you want to go with Coinbase and don’t have a friend to refer you, or don’t want to wait on them to send you their referral link, you can be referred by us by clicking here so you’re eligible for Coinbase’s sign-up bonuses and can get started right-away.