Two checks — cost and trust

Coinbase vs Gemini.

Two different questions decide this matchup: whether you get your money out, and what a trade really costs. Below, each venue’s sourced Reliability Score sits beside the measured all-in cost of the same €1,000 Bitcoin buy — trading fee plus the hidden spread from the live orderbook, withdrawal included where the venue publishes one — measured 2026-07-29 07:48 UTC.

On reliability, Coinbase scores 66, Gemini 73 (of 100, sourced & dated). Gemini currently carries the higher score — cheapest and safest need not be the same venue.

Coinbase

Published fee (maker / taker): 0.60% / 1.20%
Reliability Score: 66 / 100
Measured cost · €1,000 BTC buy: €12.00
You get: 0.01748085 BTC
Of which hidden spread: €0.00
BTC withdrawal: not published — excluded

Open Coinbase ↗neutral link

Gemini

Published fee (maker / taker): 0.60% / 1.20%
Reliability Score: 73 / 100

Open Gemini ↗neutral link

Which is safer?

Two US-regulated venues, two substitute-assurance models. Neither runs a client-verifiable Merkle-tree proof-of-reserves: Coinbase relies on public-company assurance (audited annual 10-K, quarterly reviews), Gemini on NYDFS trust oversight plus SOC 1 / SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO 27001 attestations, and it has been Nasdaq-listed since September 2025. Both hold MiCAR CASP licences — Coinbase via Luxembourg’s CSSF (announced 2025-06-20), Gemini via Malta’s MFSA (announced 2025-08-21).

Gemini’s heaviest incident is historical and specific: withdrawals from its Earn lending program were frozen in November 2022 when lending partner Genesis halted redemptions — exchange wallets were unaffected — and the matter resolved on 2024-05-29 with a full in-kind recovery worth ~232% of freeze-date value. Around the same partnership, NYDFS settled with Gemini for $37M (February 2024) alongside commitments that returned over $1.1B to Earn customers. Separately, a banking-partner breach in June 2024 exposed bank account details of ~15,000 customers.

Coinbase’s recent record: a May 2025 insider data breach in which bribed overseas support contractors exfiltrated personal data of 69,461 customers (no passwords, keys or funds; a $20M ransom was refused; estimated $180–400M total cost per its SEC 8-K); an ~8-hour halt of trading and withdrawals during the 2026-05-07 AWS thermal event; ~3 hours of degraded service in the 2025-10-20 AWS outage; and a £3.5M UK FCA fine (July 2024). The live scores above put both records through the same sourced rubric with 24-month decay — neither venue gets an adjective from us, only dates.

Full sourced basis, incident by incident: Coinbase · Gemini.

Which is cheaper?

The live cards above show published base-tier fees and the measured all-in cost of the same €1,000 BTC buy. One structural fact matters for this pair: neither venue publishes a fixed BTC withdrawal fee. Coinbase passes the prevailing network fee through at withdrawal time; Gemini charges the then-current network fee, shown before you withdraw (schedule updated 2026-01-20 — the once-famous “10 free withdrawals a month” no longer exists). Totals on this page therefore honestly exclude withdrawal for both venues.

On the convenience flows: Coinbase’s simple-buy/convert carries a curated typical markup of roughly 50–200 bps (verified 2026-06-10) that its spot book does not; Gemini has no curated convert row — not assessed, which is a coverage statement, not a zero. Our table prices spot on both.

Questions, answered

Is Coinbase or Gemini safer?

We don't issue safety verdicts. On Skontro's sourced Reliability Score, Coinbase currently scores 66/100 and Gemini 73/100 — Gemini scores higher. The score is built from documented withdrawal reliability, proof of reserves, regulatory standing, security history, support and maturity; every negative data point is dated and sourced on the venue pages.

What trading fees do Coinbase and Gemini charge?

Published base-tier fees: Coinbase 0.60% maker / 1.20% taker; Gemini 0.60% maker / 1.20% taker. The published fee is only part of the real cost — execution spread comes on top and is measured live on this page.

Has Coinbase or Gemini ever halted withdrawals?

Gemini froze withdrawals from its Earn lending program in November 2022 when partner Genesis halted redemptions; exchange-wallet withdrawals were unaffected, and the freeze resolved in May 2024 with a full in-kind recovery (~232% of freeze-date value). Coinbase halted trading, sends and withdrawals for ~8 hours during the 2026-05-07 AWS thermal event, per its own postmortem. Dated sources on the Skontro venue pages.

Method, in one paragraph

We walk each venue’s live public orderbook for the exact order size, add the published base-tier fee and the venue’s published withdrawal fee, and rank by what you actually receive. Venues without fresh data are omitted, never faked. The Reliability Score is sourced and dated, and never part of the cost ranking — and ranking is never influenced by affiliate commissions. Cost methodology · Score methodology.

More comparisons

Some venue links are affiliate links. Skontro earns a commission from the linked platform at no extra cost to you. Ranking is never influenced by affiliate payout. Ranking is always by the measured result of the trade — what you actually receive — never by affiliate relationship.