Coinbase Accepted/Restricted Countries Guide: How Your Location Affects Access to Coinbase

Coinbase started out back in 2012 as a trading platform primarily for allowing users to trade Bitcoin online. Later on, it expanded to become a proper cryptocurrency exchange that supported a wide range of digital currencies and trading services. Today, it boasts of almost 90 million verified users and provides services to over a hundred countries.

However, cryptocurrencies and their associated services are gaining a lot of interest and traction among users worldwide. Naturally, leading platforms like Coinbase are continually trying to reach out to the widest possible audience. But there are still a good number of countries where Coinbase does not offer its services, whether wholly or partially. 

Discover below whether Coinbase is available in your country and what services you can access.

How Many Countries Does Coinbase Operate In?

The total number of countries where Coinbase operates is about a hundred. It’s an ever-growing list thanks to the dynamic nature of the platform and the developing trend of more and more countries accommodating cryptocurrency exchanges and trading platforms. 

However, access to the platform’s features will differ based on which country you’re accessing it from. Coinbase countries like the USA, UK, France, Japan, etc. all offer the comprehensive suite of crypto trading features that Coinbase supports. But Coinbase countries like Brazil, Serbia, and India will have more limited access to the platform. 

To get a better idea of where Coinbase operates and how restrictive access can vary, you’ll need to walk through the countries that support Coinbase operations. 

Coinbase Supported Countries List

As already mentioned, there are about a hundred countries and economies that support Coinbase and its features. But accessibility varies from one country to another. For instance, managing your crypto assets from Coinbase UK may be slightly different from trading on Coinbase USA. Before we get into the nuanced differences, it will help if you get a general idea of which nations currently have access to the platform. 

Besides these hundred or so countries where Coinbase operates, there are Coinbase restricted countries too. To find out whether the platform runs in your country, simply visit the website, and a pop-up will appear prohibiting you from proceeding if you are logging in from a restricted region. 

An exhaustive list of all Coinbase countries will be both tedious and unnecessary. So, we’ll take you through an overview along with some of the top Coinbase-supported countries in each continent. 

North America

North America has 18 countries that support the use of Coinbase. Out of all 18, Coinbase USA and Coinbase Canada are the only two countries that allow buying, selling, and conversion of currencies. Countries like Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and Costa Rica allow buying and converting but restrict selling. The remaining 13 Coinbase countries mostly support only conversions, without capabilities of buying or selling. 

North America has about 23 full-fledged countries and more than 20 other non-sovereign territories. So, crypto enthusiasts in the remaining regions will be hoping that full access to Coinbase begins in their regions too. 

Coinbase USA alone has over 56 million users, with almost 9 million of these users being active participants. The first half of 2021 witnessed an overall revenue of over $4 billion in Coinbase USA, making it the top Coinbase-using country in the continent. 

South America

South America hosts about a dozen countries, and Coinbase operates in eight of them. Venezuela, Bolivia, Guyana, and Suriname are the only four countries that do not have any supporting provisions for the platform. 

Coinbase offers both buy and convert options for Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Peru, while the rest of the countries only support conversion. No South American country supports the selling of digital currency on Coinbase.

Only four countries in South America support credit card and debit card payments for Coinbase. So, besides converting currencies, buying crypto tokens remains the only option for most of the countries in this region. 

Europe

Europe has the maximum number of Coinbase countries compared to any other continent. It has at least 44 countries (or more, depending on whom you ask). And a whopping 39 of them support Coinbase. Provisions will vary depending on the country in question. For instance, Most European Coinbase countries support all three capabilities (Buy, Sell, and Convert). However, there are exceptions like Montenegro and Serbia that only support conversion. 

In Europe, Coinbase UK experiences more participation than most other Coinbase supporting countries. With over 100,000 daily active users, Coinbase UK boasts 10 times more traffic than its nearest two competitors, Crypto.com and Binance. 

Asia

Asia’s Coinbase supporting countries make up just over half of the total number of countries in the region. So, almost half of Asian economies come under the Coinbase restricted countries list. 

Also, among the 21 countries that have some sort of support for Coinbase, Japan is the only country that supports the selling of digital currencies on the platform (in addition to buying and converting). That’s because Coinbase supports transactions to and from the individual trader’s bank accounts in Japan. In contrast, users from countries like India can only convert existing currencies because no payment option is supported. 

So, the majority of Coinbase supporting countries in the continent only allow for the conversion of digital currency. However, about eight out of the 21 support both buying and conversion of digital currencies. 

So, Asia displays more variety in the degree of support Coinbase enjoys in each country. The chart given below is an example of how Coinbase behaves like a limited cryptocurrency exchange or a fully functional crypto trading platform, depending on where in Asia you live.

Oceania

While Oceania is technically not a continent, we’ve still included it as a nod to New Zealand. Coinbase supports both conversions and purchases of cryptocurrencies in New Zealand. 

The downside is that you don’t have provisions for selling digital currencies as you do in Coinbase USA or Coinbase UK. But most global consumers in Asian and African countries only have access to converting currencies on Coinbase. So, New Zealand may eventually enjoy full access to Coinbase as a full-fledged cryptocurrency exchange. 

Africa

Africa has the least number of Coinbase-supported countries as a ratio of the total number of nations in the continent. Only 13 out of the 54 or so countries have partial access to Coinbase. Also, it doesn’t have a single country where you can sell digital currencies on Coinbase. Only Ghana, South Africa, and Kenya allow users to both buy and convert cryptocurrencies on Coinbase. The other 11 countries only support the basic conversion of digital currencies. 

In Africa’s case, more than 40 countries count as Coinbase restricted countries.

Issues with Coinbase Restricted Countries 

From the overview given above, you can already tell that a good number of countries don’t have access to Coinbase. But these restrictions aren’t solely imposed by Coinbase. Since Coinbase is an American company, its operations are subject to the regulations set by the US government. 

For instance, the US Treasury imposes sanctions on selected financial operations from specified regions. So, if you’re an individual trader from one of these regions, you’ll not get access to the services provided by Coinbase. Users from these countries will have to look for a secure online marketplace elsewhere. 

However, there are also instances where users from Coinbase-supported countries also face issues. For example, the customer service at Coinbase is considered mediocre by some experts. And it’s large because of the varying degree of access and capabilities that Coinbase delivers for different regions. 

A good example of this variation is between Coinbase USA and Coinbase UK. Although both regions experience high daily volume and almost full access, there are clear differences in operations. In Coinbase USA, users can use their primary bank account, deposits, Debit card, or even third-party applications like PayPal to make transactions. On the other hand, Coinbase UK has a wider range of payment methods. Here, you get all the payment options available in Coinbase US. In addition to those options, UK users can also make transactions via a SWIFT account, a 3D Secure Credit Card, or an ordinary Credit Card. 

The Coinbase fees UK will also differ slightly from the fees charged at Coinbase US. Variations will appear depending on your wallet service, staking services, or Coinbase card.

Coinbase Countries FAQ