COBINHOOD supports bitcoin, Ethereum, Tether, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, NEO and more than 40 altcoins along with multiple trading pairs. You can view a list of all the digital currencies they support here. They run both a centralized and decentralized trading platform with plans to migrate the centralized exchange onto the decentralized trading platform.
In addition to a cryptocurrency trading platform, COBINHOOD also runs an initial coin offering (ICO) underwriting business that the exchange’s co-founder Popo Chen compares to Goldman Sachs’ IPO underwriting business, only for new tokens.
COBINHOOD promotes investor security as a top priority, as evidenced by features like two-factor authentication, an offline vault, insured (in the case of the centralized exchange) online wallets, multi-signature wallets and more. There are no major security breaches to speak of since the exchange went live in December 2017. More than 13,000 users signed up for the exchange on their debut trading day.
The decision to create a zero-fee trading platform came from Chen’s personal experience trading cryptocurrencies, in which he said he felt like he was being robbed when he discovered the cut that the exchanges were taking.
That was the inspiration for offering zero-fee trading to investors, but COBINHOOD still must earn money, and they do so via a two-pronged business model. COBINHOOD attaches an interest rate to the loans they provide for margin trading of up to 10x leverage, and they generate revenue from the ICO underwriting business.
You can learn more about the inspiration for COBINHOOD’S zero-trading fee approach in the below interview with exchange co-founder Popo Chen
COBINHOOD Pros
- Supports several of the leading cryptocurrencies along with many other altcoins.
- Real-time trading
- Spot trading
- Margin trading with up to 10x leverage
- Instant withdrawals
- Market orders/limit orders/stop limit orders available both in the browser version and on mobile apps
- Supportive of hard forks including Bitcoin Cash, NEO and Gas
- No known security breaches. The exchange stores assets in an offline multi-sig cold vault and in online wallets that in the case of the centralized exchange are insured (this is a similar approach taken by Coinbase).
- Multiple trading pairs
- Easy-to-navigate trading interface that’s available in more than a dozen languages that can be changed via a drop-down menu on the home page.
- They have a referral program and offer bounties including BTC