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Understanding Coinbase

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Re: Understanding Coinbase

#11
post #7
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>And eventually the asset class becoming mature, so fees also fall by another 90% Are we talking fees for coinbase pro, or the spot price offered by coinbase on their website? The prices for the former are already pretty low, with most exchanges charging around 0.2% on their lowest volume tier. The prices for the latter might be high, but I can totally imagine it staying high considering that forex rates at your loca…

The fees. 0.2% is not low compared to any mature market for trading. As a point of reference, Robinhood is free. Interactive Brokers will charge you a fraction of a cent in commissions, so on a $30 stocks that's about 0.01%

Sure, although you are comparing the rate to that of stock trades while the person you’re replying to is comparing to currency exchanges.

Re: Understanding Coinbase

#12
post #6
post #2

The biggest threat to Coinbase are decentralized exchanges like Uniswap & Sushiswap. During the peak of DeFi summer, Uniswap handled more trading volume than Coinbase. [0] Uniswap airdropped its token $UNI to all users on Sept 17, 2020. Uniswap is already at a $17 billion market cap. Coinbase is expected to IPO at ~$100 billion. [0] https://www.theblockcrypto.com/data/decentralized-finance/de...

Coinbase is more about turning non-crypto currencies into crypto currencies while UNI/SUSHI are more about turning crypto currencies into different crypto currencies. In my POV, there's only two ways to get into crypto: - Centralized exchanges with KYC - Mining Coinbase is a KYC centralized exchange and enables people to turn their bank account $$s into crypto. Uniswap and Sushiswap are only relevant once someone has…

Don't forget working for it by doing stuff and receiving payment in them. That's my personal philosophical favorite.

Re: Understanding Coinbase

#13
post #7
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>And eventually the asset class becoming mature, so fees also fall by another 90% Are we talking fees for coinbase pro, or the spot price offered by coinbase on their website? The prices for the former are already pretty low, with most exchanges charging around 0.2% on their lowest volume tier. The prices for the latter might be high, but I can totally imagine it staying high considering that forex rates at your loca…

The fees. 0.2% is not low compared to any mature market for trading. As a point of reference, Robinhood is free. Interactive Brokers will charge you a fraction of a cent in commissions, so on a $30 stocks that's about 0.01%

Stock trading is cheap for a variety of factors that's not applicable to crypto (eg. payment for order flow, stock lending [1]). A stock brokerage can also skimp on security because the legacy financial system has an undo button for oopsies. Finally, a 0.2% fee is relatively competitive with a "reasonable" commission of $5-10/trade (the going rate before brokerages became commission-free) as long the trade is below a few thousand dollars.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20276551

Re: Understanding Coinbase

#14
post #2

The biggest threat to Coinbase are decentralized exchanges like Uniswap & Sushiswap. During the peak of DeFi summer, Uniswap handled more trading volume than Coinbase. [0] Uniswap airdropped its token $UNI to all users on Sept 17, 2020. Uniswap is already at a $17 billion market cap. Coinbase is expected to IPO at ~$100 billion. [0] https://www.theblockcrypto.com/data/decentralized-finance/de...

One thing with the eth/uni world.. it seems like fluffy unicorn land. It's full of new lingo and bits to assemble (metamask etc) to maybe get something working. The crowd for this might be very small.

Re: Understanding Coinbase

#15
post #2

The biggest threat to Coinbase are decentralized exchanges like Uniswap & Sushiswap. During the peak of DeFi summer, Uniswap handled more trading volume than Coinbase. [0] Uniswap airdropped its token $UNI to all users on Sept 17, 2020. Uniswap is already at a $17 billion market cap. Coinbase is expected to IPO at ~$100 billion. [0] https://www.theblockcrypto.com/data/decentralized-finance/de...

Without personally taking a position one way or the other I think it’s fair to point out that perspectives on DeFi in general and AMMs in range from “the future of finance” to “scammy ICOs with Solidity code and a whitepaper”, even among people who are into crypto.

Re: Understanding Coinbase

#16
post #9
post #2

The biggest threat to Coinbase are decentralized exchanges like Uniswap & Sushiswap. During the peak of DeFi summer, Uniswap handled more trading volume than Coinbase. [0] Uniswap airdropped its token $UNI to all users on Sept 17, 2020. Uniswap is already at a $17 billion market cap. Coinbase is expected to IPO at ~$100 billion. [0] https://www.theblockcrypto.com/data/decentralized-finance/de...

The biggest threat is Bitcoin (and other popular cryptocurrencies) stop going up or experience a crash. Sure, there are true believers, but I suspect most people are just looking for an asset that's going up. It could be gold, Nikes, NFTs, Pokemon cards, or bitcoin. Or stocks, I suppose, but at least they have revenue.

Bitcoin skeptic is the new politically incorrect

Re: Understanding Coinbase

#17
post #2

The biggest threat to Coinbase are decentralized exchanges like Uniswap & Sushiswap. During the peak of DeFi summer, Uniswap handled more trading volume than Coinbase. [0] Uniswap airdropped its token $UNI to all users on Sept 17, 2020. Uniswap is already at a $17 billion market cap. Coinbase is expected to IPO at ~$100 billion. [0] https://www.theblockcrypto.com/data/decentralized-finance/de...

Correct me if I am wrong, but those decentralized exchanges don't seem to allow converting a token to dollars/euros/other currencies or vice versa.

At some point the ecosystem needs to interact with banks for on and off ramps, and that is where Coinbase excels.

Re: Understanding Coinbase

#18
post #3
post #2

The biggest threat to Coinbase are decentralized exchanges like Uniswap & Sushiswap. During the peak of DeFi summer, Uniswap handled more trading volume than Coinbase. [0] Uniswap airdropped its token $UNI to all users on Sept 17, 2020. Uniswap is already at a $17 billion market cap. Coinbase is expected to IPO at ~$100 billion. [0] https://www.theblockcrypto.com/data/decentralized-finance/de...

I would argue the biggest threat to coinbase is another crypto winter where volumes fall by 90%! And eventually the asset class becoming mature, so fees also fall by another 90%

That’s what we call a strong correction. Or even a « capitulation ». It’s pretty healthy if u ask me. Market cycles. It will happen again.

The question is when? After what BTCUSD price? We’ll probably run the bull a few more months and then crash.

And then start all again.

Re: Understanding Coinbase

#19
post #6
post #2

The biggest threat to Coinbase are decentralized exchanges like Uniswap & Sushiswap. During the peak of DeFi summer, Uniswap handled more trading volume than Coinbase. [0] Uniswap airdropped its token $UNI to all users on Sept 17, 2020. Uniswap is already at a $17 billion market cap. Coinbase is expected to IPO at ~$100 billion. [0] https://www.theblockcrypto.com/data/decentralized-finance/de...

Coinbase is more about turning non-crypto currencies into crypto currencies while UNI/SUSHI are more about turning crypto currencies into different crypto currencies. In my POV, there's only two ways to get into crypto: - Centralized exchanges with KYC - Mining Coinbase is a KYC centralized exchange and enables people to turn their bank account $$s into crypto. Uniswap and Sushiswap are only relevant once someone has…

Yesterday someone asked for me to pay them in Bitcoin rather than PayPal/CashApp.

I'm kind of at a loss for how to do this...

Re: Understanding Coinbase

#20
post #2

The biggest threat to Coinbase are decentralized exchanges like Uniswap & Sushiswap. During the peak of DeFi summer, Uniswap handled more trading volume than Coinbase. [0] Uniswap airdropped its token $UNI to all users on Sept 17, 2020. Uniswap is already at a $17 billion market cap. Coinbase is expected to IPO at ~$100 billion. [0] https://www.theblockcrypto.com/data/decentralized-finance/de...

> The biggest threat to Coinbase are decentralized exchanges like Uniswap & Sushiswap.

Yeah, assuming gas fees ever come down to something halfway sensible. A _minimum_ of $50 both ways to trade is a tough pill to swallow.

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