Coinbase is an American cryptocurrency exchange located in San Francisco, California. Founded in 2012 by current CEO Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam, Coinbase is one of the world’s most popular cryptocurrency exchanges, despite its relatively selective asset listing process. The exchange has received funding from several prominent venture capital firms, including Andreessen Horowitz.

Coinbase offers trading features to users in 32 countries, and offers transaction and storage features to users in 190 countries. Coinbase operates two exchanges: Coinbase and Coinbase Pro, the latter being a platform exclusive to professional traders. Coinbase Pro traders typically receive access to trading newly listed tokens before regular traders do.

As a part of its bid to compete with other major exchanges of the world, like Binance, Coinbase features several other facilities to round out its reach into the market. This includes custody services, fundraising mechanisms, a wallet, a cryptocurrency educational program and a stablecoin called USD Coin, released in partnership with payments technology company Circle. 

In more recent months, Coinbase has steadily been moving towards listing as many assets as possible. The exchange frequently puts out a list of tokens that it considers for addition, as this is the most desired development for the exchange for users. Another major development is the Coinbase custody acquisition of Xapo’s institutional business, a major crypto focused company.

Coinbase has also experienced its fair share of controversy. Their acquisition of Neutrino, which has links to a hacking team that has aided oppressive regimes, drew criticism from users and the cryptocommunity. CEO Armstrong later said that members linked to the hacking team would “transition out of Coinbase.”