U.S. residents have limited options for converting cash from their bank accounts into Bitcoin. The two main exchanges that allow you to buy Bitcoin with a simple bank transfer in the U.S. are https://Coinbase.com and https://Gemini.com. So, which is better?

The fees, services, and options provided by these exchanges differ greatly. Here is a summary:

The following is an example of the total costs associated with the purchase and sale of $1,000 of Bitcoin on each exchange:

The total cost difference between Coinbase and Gemini is striking. It seems to exist because Coinbase has been around longer, and many people do not realize that another option exists.

I recommend that you sign up for an account on both and compare for yourself.

1 Coinbase customers pay the full cost of Bitcoin transfer fees (currently around $15), but Gemini covers the full cost of outgoing transfer fees for their customers for up to 30 transfers per calendar month.

2 There is no “one price” for Bitcoin at any given time. The price at each exchange is based on the buy and sell action on that exchange only. This means the price on different exchanges can sometimes vary significantly. The price to buy Bitcoin tends to be about 1% less on Gemini than on Coinbase. (This could possibly change in the future, but so far, this spread has been very consistent.)

3 A difference between the buy and sell price will exist on any exchange. However, this spread is unusually large at Coinbase where it tends to be about 1.5%. In contrast, the buy/sell spread on Gemini tends to be less than 0.1%.

4 A “limit order” allows you to set a specified price for which you are willing to buy Bitcoin that is lower than the current market price. If the market price drops to your limit level, your order will be executed. This is a standard feature with almost all exchanges, but it is not offered by Coinbase. The option to place limit orders is available at Gemini.

5 At times, there have been delays of up 72-hours to initiate the process to transfer Bitcoin from your Coinbase account to another wallet. This is in addition to the confirmation time. The Coinbase site has also been known to go down during periods of price volatility when you may most want to make a transaction.

6 The Bitcoin price listed on the Coinbase home page is not the price you can actually buy it for. The actual price shown on the buy page is about 1% higher than the price shown on the home page. For example, at the time of this writing, the Bitcoin price listed on the Coinbase home page was $16,784, while the actual purchase price was $16,926 – a difference of $142.

 

References:

 
https://support.coinbase.com/customer/en/portal/articles/2109597-coinbase-pricing-fees-disclosures

https://gemini.com/fee-schedule/#overview

https://gemini.com/transfer-fees/