Okay so first let me start by saying I am a current user of Coinbase, I am thankful for Coinbase, and plan to continue to use Coinbase in the future, unless the terminate my account ;p.
However, I must share what I have observed in the most recent market corrections, as well as some concerns that many of the non crypto believers shared with me. We all know this is an unregulated market, while that has its pros, it also can have it cons as well, which could lead alot of people to the slaughter house. Like any emerging market there will be those out there that clean up at the expense of those less experienced, more gullible, or just plain ol greedy. I chalk that up to the game, but when you think the game is rigged then what do you do in an unregulated market?
I have shared some of the recent activity in the crypto markets, and the stories and comparisons to the stock market are undeniable. The only difference being the market manipulation is illegal there, and there are no controls to stop it here. From the whales and communities creating the pump and dumps, to the ICO's with no intention to create, to the concerning coincidences noticed by one our trusted exchanges.
The last couple of market corrections were coincidentally mirrored by "maintenance" by Coinbase. Just so happens that every time there is a huge correction and the price is a steal, I am unable to buy on Coinbase. This was not a one time thing, it has happened several times over the past several weeks, so much so that I have joined several other exchanges, including Gemini, in order to assist me in making these market orders when the time arises.
So the word on the street is that the high volume of orders that comes it when this happens causes Coinbase servers to go down, and that as soon as that is resolved they come right back up. Sounds legit right? Well how come in a bullish trend when there is the same amount of volume coming in to place buy orders that issue never arises? (honestly if there is a technical explanation for why this might be please enlighten me).
Is it possible that Coinbase is simply balancing their books while also making a small profit. See if they halt all buy orders while the price is super low, are they just filling buy orders from the previous orders. If so, then they are selling us ETH for example at $350, causing a dip in the price, then buying in at say $300. Making the transaction fees on each order plus $50 for every coin they did this with. Over a period of a day or 2 the market cap loses then regain 25 billion dollars, and Coinbase is the big winner.
Its easy to say duhh, you supposed to buy low and sell high, what the big deal. Well that applies to our traders, that is a great trading strategy, we expect and should demand more from our exchanges. And hopefully this is really just one huge coincidence. But until I find out otherwise, anytime there is a dip and Coinbase goes down...hop on another exchange and place a Buy order. Lets all balance our books as a team!
Coinbase lacks real customer support.I understand that they are going through scaling issues as their customer database did explode in numbers over the last couple months but like others pointed out whenever there is a dip or an ICO happening their exchange site is down;ultimately on your end you can't utilize some opportunities that arise from those situations. Additionally,like I mentioned a second ago,for thousands of their customers who face issues withdrawing fiat currency,their customer service lacks actual responses since all of the messages they send are automated emails. In my personal case,it took 2weeks and an external complaint to consumer financial protection bureau for them to reply back and actually solve my problem. So in conclusion,I don't support them and I am closing my account with them and moving on to Kraken/or other exchange sites.
Sorry that happened to you and thank you for sharing. I wish you luck in the future. Have you checked out Gemini? Kraken good to you?
It has been shitty, however, during the big uptrend many of the people within my circle of influence were trying to buy and coinbase was having aaaaallll kinds of problems. Not quite as big as the selloff, but still annoying enough to make newbs to the crypto space uncomfortable with the purchase they were trying to make. Which now, there uncertainty with the crypto world is increasing because for people who bought in with problems within the last few months have lost dollar value in their accounts. It doesn't give cryptocurrencies a good rep when there is a huge influx of newbs and you make it difficult for them. Hopefully more reputable companies like Coinbase can get their shit together.
Yeah you would hope so. I think the real solution is more reputable exchanges. Competition would help regulate fees as well as spread out the volume.
Thanks for the information, interesting theory and quite plausible. I am going to try another crypto app because Coinbase seems to be down quite often.