Bitcoin is the first and the most sought-after cryptocurrency on the market right now. It is traded through countless online cryptocurrency exchanges and trading platforms, one of which is Coinbase. Coinbase is one of the world’s leading exchanges of cryptocurrency, and a reliable source for tracking and monitoring Bitcoin prices.
Tracking Bitcoin prices on Coinbase
Coinbase provides useful charts for monitoring the progress of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies that are traded through the platform. You can see the price history of Bitcoin against USD, starting from the past 1 hour all the way up to the start of 2013. This chart tells an interesting story, as it also mentions the percentage increase or decrease in prices in the past hour, day, week, month, and even year.
As of this writing, Bitcoin currently stands at $6,278.64, which is a drastic 3.55% decrease since last week, and 2.11% decrease since last month. Over the past 1 year, however, the price has decreased by more than 11%.
Coinbase also has a dedicated Bitcoin price page, where you can see the same chart along with some additional statistics. These include:
- Market Cap: The total value of all Bitcoins in existence today (currently $109 Billion)
- Volume: Total value of Bitcoins traded in a specified period (usually 24 hours)
- Circulating Supply: Total number of Bitcoins in existence right now. Currently this stands at 17.4 Million, and there can only exist 21 Million Bitcoins at the most.
- All time high: The highest ever price reached by Bitcoin on the Coinbase exchange.
Note that cryptocurrency prices are not uniform across digital exchanges. They can be similar but don’t necessarily have to be exactly the same. This is because each exchange serves a different market, and there can be variations in each market with respect to supply and demand. Hence, the price you see on Coinbase might not be the same as the price on another exchange such as CEX.IO.
Using Coinbase for trading Bitcoin
Coinbase is a popular platform for buying, selling and trading Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. The platform offers Consumer and Pro accounts, among other value-add services such as Digital Wallet.
Coinbase Consumer is geared towards new users/beginners who want to own digital currency of their own, without having to learn anything about the Blockchain technology or go through the complex process of creating an offline wallet. You simply pay with a fiat currency (USD, EUR etc.), and get the equivalent amount of Bitcoins in return. Consumers can also sell their Bitcoin when needed, depending on the current market price.
Coinbase Pro allows users to trade crypto coins as well amongst each other, and make trade offers. This is meant for advanced users who understand what it means to own something on the blockchain. Coinbase Pro transaction charges are much less compared to consumer accounts.
Additionally, Coinbase also offers a Digital Wallet service for storing all your cryptocurrencies and USD Coins (USDC).
