[serioussecurity]

Your surprise over a £3 fee strikes me as a perfect illustration of crypto: profoundly naive, inexperienced investors getting a hard lesson in how unregulated markets work.

I hope, some years down the line, you take the broader life lesson that anyone promising you money for nothing does not have your best interests at heart.

[SunlightEdge]

So I don't agree with your view here. The majority of my savings were in index funds which have done very well over the years. Dipping in to a high risk investment is I think perfectly reasonable. What would be insane is if I kept on investing - or continued to do so even now. But in the spirit of good will I will take the merits of your comment :)

[nicky0]

You make it sound like a £3 transaction fee is evidence of some kind of scamminess or preying on naivety but most normal, regulated investment platforms, crypto or not, come with transaction fees, account fees, fund management fees and so on. Usually they are taking a lot more than £3 from you too. That's even before we get into the world of professional financial "advice" and the commissions they just happen to earn when you buy the one they recommend. Compared to all the ways the traditional investment world seeks to milk you, Coinbase's flat fee per trade looks admirably straightforward.

[PaulHoule]

Fees are a more honorable way to keep the lights on than the FTX ‘take the money and run’ business plan.

[SunlightEdge]

Mmmm that's a reasonable point - I didn't mind paying fees for the coins, but I do think its a little iffy about fees to withdraw...

On another note, one thing about Coinbase that struck me, was that on the app/website it doesn't actually show you how much money you put in / what the return on your investment is (I used a spreadsheet to track my own investment "success").

I suspect Coinbase does not do this deliberately - as many, many people who invest in Crypto lose money and it doesn't want to highlight this point too much.

[nicky0]

£3 fee isn’t a withdrawal fee, it’s a transaction fee to sell your bitcoin for pounds. The actual withdrawal of pounds to you bank account is free.

Likewise, you could withdraw your bitcoin to your own wallet for free. The fee comes when you change from one type of currency to another.

I think the reason they don’t show return on investment is because Coinbase presents itself as an exchange, not an investment platform. The purpose is to facilitate the exchange of currency from one kind to another. They’re not positioning themselves as trying to help you build up retirement nest egg.

[subradios]

The surprise over the $3 fee indicates just how many tricks of the light are used to hide exactly how bad finance is, then make dishonest comparisons to crypto markets.

[sebzim4500]

In my experience crypto exchanges have far fewer hidden fees than conventional banks do.