Coinbase – Ledgible
This article contains an overview of Coinbase and their products, as well as instructions on how to add your Coinbase transaction history to Ledgible.
What is Coinbase?
Coinbase Global, Inc. is an American cryptocurrency company. Coinbase began operating as a company with their cryptocurrency exchange of the same name in 2012. However, over the years since, as their company has grown, they have acquired or created many other cryptocurrency exchanges and platforms and incorporated them under their umbrella. Due to this, Coinbase now owns and operates several different exchanges all with the name Coinbase on them, typically followed by a second part. This has led to many of Ledgible's customers being confused by Coinbase's structure, especially when using Ledgible on behalf of a client. This guide has been created in order to alleviate some of the confusion.
Coinbase Applications and Products
Read here for a breakdown of all of the platforms and products offered by Coinbase
Coinbase
Coinbase is Coinbase's main and largest exchange in terms of users. Coinbase is a very front-facing platform that is meant to have a much lower barrier to entry than most cryptocurrency exchanges. It is much easier for a common user to get into and start using right away. This exchange platform, Coinbase, does not have any other official name, which is a large part of what leads to the confusion when there are so many other platforms owned by the company that also bear the Coinbase name.
For detailed instructions on how to add your Coinbase transaction history to Ledgible Crypto Tax, simply follow the instructions in our guide on Adding an OAuth-Based Exchange and select Coinbase in the drop-down list of exchanges in Step 3. Please note that Coinbase and Coinbase Pro are separate exchanges. If you transacted using Coinbase Pro or transferred funds between Coinbase and Coinbase Pro, you will need to add each exchange separately to Ledgible.
Coinbase Pro
Coinbase Pro is Coinbase's other primary exchange platform. This exchange is much less introductory in nature and is much more geared toward users who have at least a decent understanding of cryptocurrency and how trading works. As a result, Coinbase Pro tends to have much lower fees than Coinbase.
For detailed instructions on how to add your Coinbase Pro transaction history to Ledgible Crypto Tax, see our guide on Adding A Coinbase Pro Exchange Account. Please note that Coinbase and Coinbase Pro are separate exchanges. If you transacted using Coinbase or transferred funds between Coinbase and Coinbase Pro, you will need to add each exchange separately to Ledgible.
Coinbase Wallet
Coinbase Wallet is a wallet application used to store your crypto. Coinbase Wallet is not actually used to trade currency on the market; however, transactions can be made in and out of your wallet. Even though this is not an exchange platform, this can cause much confusion because Coinbase refers to the assets that you have acquired and have in your account on their exchanges as your wallet, but this is different than a Coinbase Wallet.
Coinbase Prime
Coinbase Prime is Coinbase's primary exchange for Institutions. Larger corporations, funds, and entities are encouraged to use Coinbase Prime instead of the standard Coinbase exchanges as Prime has features specifically catered to these institutions, such as "Seamless transfers between our segregated cold storage and trading balance. Access to more than 10 venues for deep liquidity. Smart order routing will automatically route your order to the venue with the best all-in prices" (source)
You can find more information on creating an API key in Coinbase Prime here.
Coinbase Custody
Coinbase Custody is another platform by Coinbase that is intended largely for institutional investors, but this time instead of being primarily focused on trading, Coinbase Custody is all about storing your crypto and earning off of it, whether that be through staking or by investing in Coinbase's Earn programs, institutions can leave their crypto in this platform and earn interest off of it.
Coinbase Card
This one is one of the more straightforward ones but alas still causes confusion due to sharing the Coinbase name with everything else on this list. Coinbase Card is a debit card for your crypto. What's neat about this is since the Coinbase Card is provided by Visa, you can use it anywhere you can use a Visa card.
Coinbase Commerce
Coinbase Commerce is a transaction and payments platform for merchants and vendors to use, similar to Square but for crypto. As crypto continues to grow and become more widespread we can expect many more stores, restaurants, and other independent vendors to begin using Coinbase Commerce.
For detailed instructions on how to add your Coinbase Commerce transaction history to Ledgible Crypto Tax, see our guide on Adding a Coinbase Commerce Account.
For more information on how to create an API in Coinbase, please refer to their support article.
To set up an OAuth-based exchange connection, please follow these steps:
- From your Ledgible account dashboard, click the Crypto Sources tab in the top navigation bar.
- Click the Add Sources button toward the top-right of the page.
- Select your OAuth based exchange. For the purposes of this example we will be using Coinbase, however the process is the same for all OAuth-based exchanges. For more information on specific exchanges, please see this section of our Knowledge Base.
- Once the exchange is selected, enter the name for the crypto source you would like to add, designate the account type, and select Connect your Account.
- On the next page, click Connect. You will be redirected to your exchange's login page, and subsequently asked to confirm what data you are allowing Ledgible to access.
- Log into your Coinbase account if necessary, click the Authorize button and you will be redirected to Ledgible. Click Create and your exchange will be added to Ledgible.
You can now run an account refresh for Ledgible to correctly display all of your transactions. To view transactions specific to this exchange, you can return to it at anytime under the Crypto Sources tab.