I decided on Coinbase and Gemini. Both exchanges operate in a variety of countries, and are two of the most trusted exchanges to trade/buy bitcoin. I was approved instantly Coinbase, and within a few weeks by Gemini, so it was time to start buying! But can you really make money with Coinbase?

Getting Approved At Coinbase

If you want to make money at Coinbase, you have to get approved first. For me, this was very easy. I live in California, which is an area where they operate. Though I started relatively late to the Bitcoin craze, I wasn't quite at the peak (The price was around $2200 when I joined, and it surged to $3000 just a few weeks later).

I had my credit card ready, plus my bank account info (routing/account number). The same day I was approved or $500 worth of credit card purchases and $5,000 worth of bank deposits. When buying Bitcoin at Coinbase, credit card and bank purchases are not equal, so keep reading to find out how much each will cost you. Plus, there's an even cheaper option, to use their platform called GDAX. I'll talk more about that later, because we'll need to determine our fees to see if we're actually making money with our trades.

Fees At Coinbase

Buying coins at Coinbase Pro Login is not free. There's a fee attached to most activities, so in order to ensure you're actually making money, you need to calculate how much you're paying. Here's the full list of fees. They vary based on country.

Purchase Fees at Coinbase

In the USA, you'll pay a 1.49% fee on all purchases through your bank. However, I have found that if you buy less than $200, that fee remains at flat $2.99. So at $200 you are paying a 1.49% fee. At $100 you are paying a 3% fee. After $200 the fee scales properly, so at $250 you can expect to pay $3.72 or 1.49%.

If you deposit USD into your wallet, you still have to pay this fee when you buy Bitcoin. In both cases, you have to wait about a week for the transaction to confirm. So I could buy $500 USD worth of Litecoin on Monday, and not get it until Friday or later. The price is locked in, but it's not accessible on your account yet. I can avoid this delay by depositing a chunk of USD first, then buying bitcoin with the dollars in my virtual wallet rather than buying the coins directly with the money in my bank account.

Credit Card Fees at Coinbase

Credit card fees are 3.99% across the board. So if I buy $100, I pay $3.99 in in fees. At $200 I pay $7.98. At $300 I pay $11.97. The transaction happens instantly, so I can actually get access to my coins immediately after buying.

GDAX as an Alternative

If you want to start trading and try to make money fast, then Coinbase is easy to use and understand. That's the reason most people get started there. There's also another feature called the Coinbase Vault, which is a great reason to use Coinbase as a service.

But if you'er going to buy buying cryptocurrencies frequently, especially for the reason of making money, then you need to get familiar with GDAX.

This website is actually owned by Coinbase, and there's a lot of integration. You can move your funds back and forth between the two services freely. GDAX is like the Coinbase exchange, where you can see the prices fluctuating throughout the day as people buy and sell.

The fees are much lower here, which is why you should be buying and selling through this platform. You have to verify your bank account details separately, which could cause further delays in your ability to buy/sell, but it's worth the wait. Here's a list of the fees at GDAX. I think people stay away from GDAX because the are scared to trading phrases like “limit order” or “stop loss”, so they choose to go through Coinbase because it's got a better user interface.

But when you realize that you pay 0.25% instead of 4%, it should be obvious why I recommend it.

How Much Money Have I Made Money At Coinbase?

It's important to remember that the price of cryptocurrencies fluctuate frequently, so money is not “made” until it's in your pocket. That being said, if I'm writing about how to make money with Coinbase, I guess I'd better show my results.

I've made hundreds of transactions over the past few months buying Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Ethereum. I'm too lazy to download all of my transactions and make an exact calculation, but I'll give an approximation.