Well I tried, but Coinbase Prime’s fees remain a mystery, with customer support offering vague answers and endless transfers.
Picture this: you walk into a restaurant, sit down, and ask the waiter, “How much is the steak?” The waiter smiles and says, “That depends. You need to order it first and after you’ve eaten, we’ll email you the price.”
Welcome to Coinbase Prime, where knowing what you’re paying for is apparently a bridge too far – an exclusive feature available only after you’ve committed.
The Search for the Holy Grail (Coinbase’s Custody Fees)
Let’s take a moment to admire the Herculean efforts of potential Coinbase Prime customers who just wanted a simple answer to a simple question: How much does it cost? Spoiler alert: Coinbase’s response is the customer service equivalent of an escape room where every clue leads back to the same locked door.
The Reddit Odyssey
Here a Reddit user decided to go on an epic quest for answers. After much searching, they turned to the Coinbase support team, who couldn’t provide a single straight answer. It almost reads like they’re pranking the guy.
First directed to another page, then another, and finally, the ultimate revelation – try their social media.
“To further assist, please contact us via direct message on Instagram, Facebook, or X (Twitter). This will enable us to request your email address and generate a support ticket. Once the case is created, we will escalate it to the relevant team that handles Coinbase Prime concerns.”
So to summarize this sequence. First direct the customer to many different webpages, none of which contain the information. Then require that they join Instagram or Twitter to contact you – only then can a support ticket be created, which will then (you hope) be directed to somebody who can answer the question. Wow.
Perhaps you could read some documentation for answers? Well sure, you could download this 17-page PDF from Coinbase, all about Coinbase Prime Custody. But really, that would be a waste of time, because it doesn’t actually cover unimportant things like fees.
The Help Desk Maze
Ok, how about chat? Surely, they’ll have their fingers on the pulse. But oh dear – you have to have an account to chat with them. Luckily I do – so here goes nothing.
It was as enlightening a conversation as asking my cat for directions.
Coinbase Rep: “The fees will depend on your account when you sign up. You will get an email after you sign up.”
Me: “So you can’t tell me the fee structure?”
Coinbase Rep: “… I cannot answer your question regards that.”
At that stage, they said I’d be transferred to an agent who could help, at which point the conversation abruptly ended—possibly because the agent, like the fee structure, ceased to exist.
What We Do Know (Kind Of)
After weeks of detective work, a valiant Redditor finally uncovered a snippet of truth buried deep in Coinbase’s customer service agreement: Coinbase Prime (maybe?) charges a minimum of $2,400 per year for custody services, billed monthly. But really, who knows? How about CEO Brian Armstrong?
This information is very old – but it still pops on page one of search results for the query “Coinbase Custody Fees” – which shows you how little new information is being released on the topic.
In a medium post from 2017, Armstrong said “there is an initial setup fee of $100,000 USD, and a fee of 10 basis points per month on assets stored.” Now we’re getting somewhere. This would mean if you’re a family office or a fund manager with $20 million to secure it would only cost you $20,000 a month. At the time, Coinshares’ Daniel Masters responded in the post’s comments section with “ridiculously expensive.” He’s right, of course, but until Coinbase sees fit to provide new information, it’s the only pricing I’ve been able to confirm.
Final Thoughts
Coinbase’s unwillingness to disclose its fees is either an elaborate social experiment or a calculated effort to ensure they remain the financial world’s best-kept secret. In the meantime, anyone considering Coinbase Prime should brace themselves for an Indiana Jones-style adventure—complete with cryptic clues, an endless maze, and lots of DMs on X. Yay!
My final move was to get a lawyer to send them an information request. I’ll let you know if they ever respond, but until then, I can only wish Coinbase’s customers the best of luck… they’ll need it.
