Coinbase Launches Zero-Fee Trading, But There Are Catches

On May 18, the company announced upgrades to Coinbase One, a membership account that offers zero trading fees, boosted staking rewards, and priority support.

However, the catch is that users will have to stump up $30 a month for the privilege.

Coinbase has often been criticized for having some of the highest trading fees in the industry. It makes the lion’s share of its profits from these often extortionate fees, so the model obviously works.

Paying a monthly fee to eliminate these fees would only be of benefit to whales and heavy traders. Furthermore, those that do trade a lot are unlikely to trade on Coinbase and would favor a decentralized exchange (DEX) where the fees are a fraction.

2/ The best of Coinbase just got ✨better✨ Unlock zero trading fees, a dedicated support team, boosted staking rewards, and exclusive benefits from partners with Coinbase One — all for $29.99/month.

Claim your 30-day free trial → https://t.co/agCecP7lsp

— Coinbase 🛡️ (@coinbase) May 18, 2023

Coinbase One Catches

Coinbase is offering a 30-day free trial for its new service, which includes priority support. Aside from its hefty fees, the firm has also been heavily criticized for its lack of customer support.

It appears that Coinbase customers now have to pay to get a timely response through support channels. Members will also be able to receive support with crypto tax filing, it added.

The firm stated it was expanding access to Coinbase One in the United Kingdom, Germany, and Ireland in addition to the United States.

Moreover, the firm is offering perks with partners, including Messari, CoinTracker, and Lemonade.

Coinbase already offers premium accounts and stated that the zero trading fee offer does not apply to Advanced Trade, Coinbase Pro, or Coinbase Prime.

The crypto community’s reaction was mixed with a fair bit of skepticism over the service. “Nebraskangooner” said to his 300,000 followers:

“Your support team told me to cancel my membership because the zero trading fees is misleading and only for up to $10,000 worth of trading a month and you still take advantage of people with slippage on basic trading anyway.”

COIN shares slipped 1.28% on the day in a fall to $60.35 in after-hours trading.

Crypto Market Outlook

Crypto markets dropped 1.5% on the day, with total capitalization falling to $1.16 trillion.

Bitcoin lost 2% in a fall to $26,782, while Ethereum dipped 1.3% to just below $1,800 at the time of writing.

Markets have remained sideways for the past couple of months and are still cooling from their mid-April high for the year.