Electrum vs. Coinbase: A Comprehensive Comparison for Crypto Security

When you start buying, selling, trading, or investing in cryptocurrencies, you need a place to store your tokens. A good cryptocurrency wallet can help you keep track of your coins and ensure they are relatively safe. But the world of blockchain and open-source technology can be a bit daunting to explore, even if you're just picking a wallet.

Two popular crypto wallets are those offered by Electrum and Coinbase. If you’re trying to decide which to get, here’s what you need to know about Electrum vs. Coinbase.

In this article

• Electrum vs. Coinbase
• How does Electrum work?
• How does Coinbase Wallet work?
• What both cryptocurrency wallets excel at
• 4 important differences between Electrum and Coinbase
• FAQs
• Bottom line

Electrum vs. Coinbase

Electrum Bitcoin Wallet Coinbase Wallet Platforms supported Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, and an interactive Python shell iOS (iPhone and iPad), Android, Chrome extension Pricing Free Free Supported cryptocurrencies Bitcoin Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tether, Chainlink, Litecoin, U.S. Dollar Coin, NFTs, and more Integrations Bitamp and Bitcoin Aave, Coinbase (and Coinbase Custody), Compound, DeFi Saver, Hotswap, and more Who it’s best for Advanced crypto users focused on Bitcoin Beginners interested in the ability to manage digital assets on different exchanges, including NFTs Visit Electrum Visit Coinbase

How does Electrum work?

Electrum is a Bitcoin wallet mainly designed to protect those who use it from losing their coins in the event of a computer failure or a mistake. It’s primarily a hardware wallet, accessed via a desktop operating system. Electrum was founded in 2011 by Thomas Voetglin.

One of the things that makes Electrum attractive is that it’s possible to recover your wallet with the help of a secret phrase you can learn by heart or write down on paper. You can recover your wallet later with the phrase rather than losing all your Bitcoin because you forgot something or a mistake was made.

On top of that, Electrum is a Bitcoin client that allows you to split your signatures between various wallets. It can also provide you with a wallet that is considered watching-only, which means you don’t have to worry about keeping your private keys online. Finally, it’s possible to export your private keys for use with other Bitcoin clients.

For users focused mainly on Bitcoin, Electrum can be a good choice because it has a lot of flexibility. It’s important to note, though, that Electrum is a Bitcoin client, and you can only use it with Bitcoin.

How does Coinbase Wallet work?

Coinbase was founded as a cryptocurrency exchange in 2012. Its co-founder, Brian Armstrong, is the company’s CEO. Coinbase is a public-traded company, available on the NASDAQ exchange under the ticker symbol COIN. Coinbase offers a mobile wallet, and it can be accessed via desktop as a browser extension.

When investing money in cryptocurrencies, integration with an exchange can be very helpful. Coinbase offers a wallet that supports more than 500 digital assets, including non-fungible tokens (NFTs). With the Coinbase wallet, it’s possible to connect to other cryptocurrency exchanges and trade coins that way — even though not all the coins are available for trade on Coinbase’s main cryptocurrency exchange.

One of the benefits of the Coinbase wallet is that you can easily connect it to your Coinbase account. There’s a Chrome extension you can use to connect on your desktop computer as well. Your Coinbase wallet can also connect to NFT makers, and it supports major cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), Tether (USDT), and more.

Coinbase will let you send coins between Coinbase wallets for free, so if you send a coin from one Coinbase wallet to another, you might be able to avoid some fees.