Coinbase, Exchanges

Is Coinbase a Market Maker?

Coinbase is a digital asset exchange company headquartered in San Francisco, California. They broker exchanges of Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and other digital assets with fiat currencies in 32 countries, and bitcoin transactions and storage in 190 countries worldwide.

Coinbase has been described as the most popular bitcoin wallet provider.

As of May 2018, Coinbase had 13 million users, growing to 20 million by August 2018 with over $150 billion worth of digital currency exchanged. Coinbase is one of the most popular cryptocurrency exchanges and allows you to buy, sell and store cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin & more. But is Coinbase a market maker?

In traditional financial markets, a market maker is a bank or brokerage firm that stands ready to buy or sell a particular security at a stated price. The market maker’s role is to provide liquidity to the market. When there are more buyers than sellers, the market maker will buy the security; when there are more sellers than buyers, the market maker will sell the security.

NOTE: WARNING: Coinbase is NOT a market maker. Coinbase is an exchange that facilitates cryptocurrency trading, but does not make markets on its own. Market makers are usually large financial institutions or companies that provide liquidity to the markets by buying and selling securities at predetermined prices and quantities.

By doing this, the market maker keeps the market moving smoothly. In the cryptocurrency world, Coinbase has often been referred to as a market maker because they help to facilitate trades between buyers and sellers.

However, it’s important to note that Coinbase is not a traditional market maker in the sense that they don’t always take the opposite side of a trade. Instead, Coinbase matches orders from buyers and sellers who are both using the platform to trade.

So, if there is a buyer looking to buy 1 BTC and there is a seller looking to sell 1 BTC, Coinbase will match those orders and execute the trade. In this way, Coinbase is more like a traditional broker than a market maker.

While Coinbase may not always take the opposite side of a trade like a traditional market maker does, they do charge fees for their service. These fees are generally much higher than what you would pay with a traditional broker.

For example, when you buy or sell Bitcoin on Coinbase, they charge a 1% fee (plus an additional 4% fee if you’re using a credit or debit card). So, while Coinbase isn’t technically a market maker, they do act as a broker that charges fees for their services.

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