Coinbase vs Gemini: fees, licences and which to pick in 2026

Coinbase vs Gemini has a clear answer for European readers: Gemini closed all EEA, UK and Australian accounts on 6 April 2026, so if you live in the EU, Coinbase is the one of the two you can use. Coinbase serves EU residents through Coinbase Luxembourg S.A., which holds a MiCA licence from the Luxembourg regulator, the CSSF.

For readers in the United States, Gemini and Coinbase are closer than you might expect. Both are listed on Nasdaq, both are regulated in New York, and both order books start at 0.60% maker and 1.20% taker. Coinbase lists far more coins; Gemini publishes its full fee schedule. We checked fee pages, licence pages and regulatory filings for both crypto exchanges on 23 October 2026. We have not opened accounts, so this is a comparison of published facts, not investment advice.

Coinbase vs Gemini: the short answer

Choose Coinbase if you live in Europe, want more than a few dozen coins or want phone support. Choose Gemini only if you live in the US, mostly buy popular cryptocurrencies and prefer an exchange that publishes every fee tier. For crypto investors outside the US and Singapore, the Gemini vs Coinbase question no longer arises.

• Coinbase: founded in 2012, listed since April 2021, MiCA-licensed in Luxembourg, 400+ coins, free SEPA deposits and withdrawals. The catch: a long list of fines, including two from the Central Bank of Ireland, and a 2025 customer data breach.
• Gemini: founded in 2014 by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, NYDFS-supervised trust company, about 65 tradable assets. The catch: it no longer serves Europe, and the Gemini Earn history and open lawsuits weigh on its record.

Coinbase vs Gemini for EU and UK residents

If you live in the EU or UK, Gemini is not an option and Coinbase is. Gemini announced its exit from the UK, the EU and Australia in February 2026, made accounts withdrawal-only from 5 March and closed them on 6 April 2026.

The facts table above still shows a MiCA licence for Gemini, because ESMA’s interim register lists its August 2025 Maltese authorisation without an end date. That licence is not in use for retail clients, so any Gemini account you held in the EU has been closed and you no longer have access to the Gemini exchange from Europe.

Coinbase Luxembourg S.A. was authorised under MiCA on 20 June 2025 and passports that licence to every EEA country, including the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium and Ireland. Coinbase moved its EU hub from Ireland to Luxembourg in 2025. UK customers use CB Payments Ltd, registered with the FCA.

Gemini vs Coinbase: what are the two crypto exchanges?

Coinbase and Gemini are both cryptocurrency exchanges with a simple buy-and-sell app for beginner investors and a separate order book for active trading. Coinbase offers a simple app and Coinbase Advanced; Gemini offers a simple app and Gemini ActiveTrader, its platform for the active trader. Both support US dollars; of the two, only Coinbase supports euros and pounds, while Gemini’s fiat currencies are US and Singapore dollars.

Coinbase serves the US through Coinbase, Inc., which holds a New York BitLicense and state money transmitter licences, and runs a CFTC-registered futures exchange, Coinbase Derivatives, LLC. Gemini Trust Company is a limited purpose trust company supervised by the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), and Gemini Titan is a CFTC-registered exchange for prediction markets. At the end of 2025 Gemini reported about 601,000 monthly transacting users.

Coinbase fees vs Gemini fees: which has lower fees?

Neither has lower trading fees at entry level: Coinbase Advanced and Gemini ActiveTrader both start at 0.60% maker and 1.20% taker. Gemini publishes lower tiers from $10,000 of 30-day volume, while Coinbase’s tiers sit behind a sign-in.

Two caveats on the Coinbase fee structure. Coinbase’s public fee pages no longer list Advanced rates, so the 0.60% / 1.20% figure for the lowest tier comes from NerdWallet’s copy of the in-app table, updated December 2025, and may differ for EU accounts. And simple buys carry a spread plus a Coinbase fee that varies by payment method, order size and market, shown only in the order preview.

Advanced trading: Coinbase Advanced vs Gemini ActiveTrader

Coinbase Advanced, which replaced Coinbase Pro, and Gemini ActiveTrader both use maker taker pricing. A maker order, usually a limit order that waits in the order book, pays the lower rate; a taker order, such as a market order, pays the higher one. If you trade $10,000 or more in 30 days on Gemini, your rate drops to 0.40% / 0.80%; we can’t compare Coinbase at that level because its tiers are not public.

Worked examples: €100 and €1,000

Here is what the entry-tier order-book fees add up to. Gemini prices in US dollars, so US readers can read the same sums as $100 and $1,000.

In the simple apps, Gemini’s annual report puts the convenience fee at typically around 1% above market price, about €1.00 on €100 or €10.00 on €1,000, plus any variable fee. Coinbase does not publish a fixed simple-buy fee for EU customers, so read the order preview. If you place a simple limit order on Coinbase, the 1% execution fee adds €1.00 on €100. Either way, the order book with limit orders is the cheaper route.

How Coinbase and Gemini fees compare with Kraken fees

Both charge higher fees at entry level than Kraken. Kraken Pro charges 0.40% maker and 0.80% taker since July 2026, so a €1,000 market order costs €8.00 there against €12.00 on Coinbase or Gemini. If fees decide it for you, read Coinbase vs Kraken and Kraken vs Gemini.

Buying crypto: deposits, withdrawals and payment methods

Coinbase is the cheaper way to move euros in and out. Coinbase states that SEPA deposits and withdrawals in EUR are free and take 1–3 business days, and the bank account name must match your Coinbase account. Gemini no longer offers SEPA.

In the US, Gemini charges 3.49% to fund your Gemini account with a debit card and 2.50% with PayPal; check each exchange’s fee page for funding from a bank account by ACH or wire transfer. Coinbase does not publish fixed card purchase fees for EU customers. Paying by card usually costs more than a bank transfer, so check the preview before you pay.

Coins, staking and ways to earn interest

Coinbase lists far more assets: 400+ coins against about 65 tradable assets in Gemini’s disclosures dated 21 May 2026. Both cover bitcoin, ether and the most popular cryptocurrencies, so the gap matters if you want smaller altcoins.

Both offer staking, which lets you earn rewards in crypto by locking up coins that secure a blockchain. Coinbase keeps a standard commission of 35% of staking rewards for assets such as ETH, SOL and ADA, less for Coinbase One members. Staking rewards are not interest and can be worth less when you sell.

Gemini’s earlier earn program shows the risk of lending crypto for interest. Gemini Earn relied on lending partner Genesis, which froze withdrawals in November 2022 after the FTX collapse. Earn users’ assets stayed locked until an in-kind recovery of about $2.2 billion in May and June 2024.

Margin and futures trading for advanced traders

For advanced traders, both platforms offer an order book, an API and derivatives as trading options, with different reach. Coinbase launched crypto and equity-index futures for Advanced users in 26 European countries in March 2026, with up to 10x leverage and fees from 0.02% per contract, through its CySEC-licensed firm. Coinbase’s Dutch page refers to “professional clients”, so check whether retail investors qualify where you live.

Gemini lists perpetual futures from 0.02% maker and 0.07% taker at its lowest tier and offers margin trading, but neither is open to EU residents. Most retail traders lose money with leveraged products, so futures trading suits experienced traders with a plan for losses.

Gemini Credit Card and Coinbase Card

Gemini offers a credit card in the US only. Coinbase offers the Coinbase Card, which in the EU and EEA is issued by Paysafe Payment Solutions Limited. Card terms and crypto rewards change often, and we have not verified current reward rates, so check the issuer’s terms before you sign up.

Is your money safe on Coinbase or Gemini?

Neither exchange can promise your money is protected: crypto is not covered by deposit guarantee schemes, and both have had incidents. They also publish different things about customer assets.

Gemini’s custody keeps coins in offline cold storage and uses geographically distributed hardware security modules and multi-party computation, and Gemini Trust is a NYDFS-regulated qualified custodian with SOC 1 and SOC 2 examinations. We found no proof of reserves on Gemini’s pages. Coinbase publishes no Merkle-tree proof of reserves either; as a listed company it publishes quarterly financial statements, audited annually, and states that it holds customer assets 1:1.

The incidents on record:

• Coinbase, 2025: criminals bribed offshore support staff to obtain data on about 69,000 customers. Coinbase refused a $20 million ransom and estimated $180 million to $400 million in costs.
• Gemini, 2022: the Genesis freeze of Earn customer funds, and data breaches at third-party vendors that exposed some users’ email addresses and phone numbers.
• Gemini, 2024: a breach at a service provider of one of its ACH banking partners affected about 15,000 users.

Leaked customer data makes fake support calls more convincing, so be wary of anyone who contacts you first. On either crypto trading platform, use two factor authentication with an app or hardware keys rather than SMS, turn on withdrawal address allowlisting where offered, and keep your recovery details so you don’t lose access. For larger balances, consider a crypto wallet you control, such as a hardware wallet kept offline in cold storage.

Regulation and track record

Both companies have paid large penalties. Coinbase’s list is longer and includes EU regulators; Gemini’s includes open lawsuits.

• Coinbase: a $100 million NYDFS settlement in 2023 over AML and KYC failures; a €3.3 million fine from De Nederlandsche Bank in 2023; a £3.5 million FCA fine for CB Payments Ltd in 2024; a €21.46 million Central Bank of Ireland fine for Coinbase Europe Limited in 2025 over unmonitored transactions; and a €3.25 million Central Bank of Ireland fine for Coinbase Ireland Limited on 22 October 2026 over customer-fund safeguarding and outsourcing. Both Irish fines are subject to High Court confirmation. The SEC dismissed its 2023 lawsuit in 2025.
• Gemini: a 2024 NYDFS consent order over Earn ($37 million penalty plus $40 million for users), a further $50 million New York Attorney General settlement and a $5 million CFTC penalty in January 2025. The SEC dismissed its Earn case on 28 January 2026. In 2026 Gemini faced an IPO class action and a New York Attorney General lawsuit over its prediction markets.

Customer support and mobile apps

Coinbase offers more ways to reach support, which matters if your account is ever locked: phone and in-app messaging with a virtual assistant and, depending on hours, live agents. Gemini lists a help centre and a web request form. Both offer mobile apps for simple buys and separate tools for the active trader.

Gemini and Coinbase: which should you choose?

Choose Coinbase if you live in the EU or UK, want free SEPA transfers, more assets or phone support. The main downside is cost and record: higher fees than Kraken or Crypto.com at 0.60% / 1.20%, visible only after sign-in, and five regulatory fines since 2023.

Choose Gemini if you live in the US, mostly buy major coins and want a fully published fee schedule with lower tiers from $10,000 a month. The main downside is the narrow coin range, no European service and open lawsuits.

Compare Gemini and Coinbase with other crypto exchanges

To compare Gemini or Coinbase with other cryptocurrency exchanges, see Coinbase vs Crypto.com and Crypto.com vs Gemini, or the full Coinbase fees page. For the full picture, read our Coinbase review and Gemini review. Crypto prices can swing sharply and you can lose all the money you put in, so base your investment decisions on what you can afford to lose.