Coinbase, Exchanges

Can You Go Negative on Coinbase?

It’s no secret that cryptocurrency exchanges like Coinbase make money by charging fees on trades. What’s less well known is that these businesses also earn revenue from something called “negative balance protection”.

In a nutshell, this means that if a customer’s account balance goes negative (i.e. they owe the exchange money), the exchange will cover the shortfall.

This may sound like a good thing for customers, but it’s actually quite controversial. That’s because exchanges have been known to manipulate prices in order to trigger negative balances and then charge huge fees to cover them.

NOTE: WARNING: Trading on Coinbase can be a risky endeavor. You should be aware that it is possible to go negative on Coinbase, meaning you could end up owing Coinbase money if your trade does not turn out as you anticipated. As such, it is important to do your research and understand how the platform works before engaging in any trades. Additionally, you should always use stop losses to mitigate risk and never risk more than you can afford to lose.

This practice is called “bear trapping” and it can cause investors to lose a lot of money.

The good news is that Coinbase has recently announced that it will no longer offer negative balance protection to its customers. This is a big win for crypto investors, as it means that they will no longer be at risk of being exploited by bear traps.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that you should never go negative on Coinbase (or any other exchange). There are still some situations where it might be unavoidable (e.g.

if you’re margin trading and the market moves against you). But in general, it’s now safer to use Coinbase than it was before.

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