It's one of the worst-kept secrets in crypto that Coinbase Pro offers substantially lower trading fees than Coinbase — but it takes time for newcomers to figure this out.
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Coinbase Pro is going to be discontinued later this year, the exchange has confirmed.
The standalone site offers more technical trading features than the standard version of Coinbase — and crucially, lower transaction fees.
In a statement, the company said a replacement feature called Advance Trade is going to be rolled out in the normal Coinbase app.
It's hoped this will prevent traders from having to constantly switch between Coinbase and Coinbase Pro. The company added:
"We'll notify customers again when we are ready to share concrete dates for sunsetting Coinbase Pro."
It's one of the worst-kept secrets in crypto that Coinbase Pro offers substantially lower trading fees than Coinbase — but unfortunately for many newcomers to the market, it can take some time for them to figure this out.
Coinbase has stressed that Advance Trade will continue to offer the same volume-based fees as Pro did — and it's hoped "other improvements will make Advance Trade an upgrade from Coinbase Pro for every customer."
Why Now?
Product manager Dan Stone and engineering manager Andrew Herman explained that Coinbase Pro first launched in 2018.
It was designed to help traders perform technical analysis and interact directly with the exchange's order book.
But while Pro was exceedingly popular, they explained that advanced features have been separately added to Coinbase's main app — including the ability to stake and borrow crypto, as well as a DApp wallet and Coinbase Card.
"As a result, many customers rely on Coinbase Pro and Coinbase.com for overlapping sets of features, and often experience friction when transferring balances back-and-forth between the two products."
It's hoped integrating Advance Trade into Coinbase will "resolve this friction and offer customers the best of both worlds."
Hoping to win round crypto enthusiasts who may be reluctant to change, the executives said:
"Advanced Trade is equipped with all the capabilities of Coinbase Pro, but upgraded with the most seamless Coinbase experience to make informed trades, faster and easier."
They claim Advanced Trade offers "more in-depth technical analysis, advanced real-time order books , and charting powered by TradingView."
There's little doubt that Coinbase Pro users will be watching like a hawk for any subtle increases to trading fees.
Coinbase is currently battling a challenging crypto winter, and recently announced that it's laying off 18% of its workforce — about 1,100 staff.
