Founded in 2012, Coinbase exchange has become one of the most widely used cryptocurrency exchanges in the crypto industry, particularly among beginner investors due to its simple interface.
If you’re yet to sign up you can start your crypto investing journey using the Coinbase referral program that awards you with a $10 Coinbase bonus (paid in Bitcoin) using any Coinbase referral link.
Current Coinbase Bonus & Referral Code
The current Coinbase bonus is $10 (or £7) worth of free Bitcoin – paid in BTC – and no Coinbase referral code exists – unlike Binance or Crypto.com. It’s only necessary to click on a Coinbase referral link.
Whatever currency is displayed, you’ll receive free Bitcoin worth $10
At the current exchange rate (around $40,000 per Bitcoin) that’s 0.000025 BTC. The Coinbase bonus is credited to your Bitcoin balance when you buy $100 worth of any cryptocurrency listed on the platform – whether that’s Bitcoin, Ethereum, or any of the 100+ cryptos Coinbase exchange has listed.
Once you create a Coinbase account, you can then refer friends yourself – both you and they will receive the $10 Coinbase bonus – just using your own link, no Coinbase referral code is needed.
Crypto Platform Promo Codes Compared
| Crypto Exchange | Bonus | Referral Code |
| Binance | $100 in Cashback vouchers | 49241604 or referral link |
| Bitstamp | $20 in Cash | Only requires referral link |
| Coinbase | $10 in BTC | Only requires referral link |
| Crypto.com | $10 – $50 in CRO | cro10 or referral link |
| Huobi | $150 USD | Only requires referral link |
Cryptoassets are a highly volatile unregulated investment product. No UK or EU investor protection.
What is the Coinbase Sign Up Bonus?
A way to test the Coinbase altcoin exchange and begin investing in Bitcoin is by claiming the free 0.000025 BTC that you can keep. This is different from the Binance bonus, which is larger but can only be used as collateral for trading fees—it acts as a temporary discount, making it more suitable for active traders.
The Coinbase referral program used to award the referrer $25, which was increased to $75 in 2015, then reduced to $10 in 2016, the same as the Coinbase bonus amount received by the referee. They get $10, you get $10. It can be withdrawn at any time, held as an investment, or swapped for another crypto.
If you aren’t referred by a friend directly, you can still receive the $10 bonus by using a Coinbase referral link on any online website, such as this one. If you run a blog or website of your own, you can also promote Coinbase to your readers on it, as long as you don’t run PPC ads with the direct link in.
The Coinbase sign up bonus is a way to ‘jump start your crypto portfolio’
Coinbase Referral Bonus Terms & Conditions
On the Coinbase help section of the website the T&Cs state the bonus amount may ‘vary from time to time and by country‘. The other requirements to receive the Coinbase sign up bonus are:
- To buy the $100 worth of crypto within 180 days
- To buy crypto on Coinbase rather than Coinbase Pro
- To sign up on the website, rather than the Coinbase app
It can take up to four business days before your Coinbase sign up bonus is credited to your balance, and Coinbase support does reserve the right to disqualify accounts it suspects of fraud, e.g. opening multiple or duplicate accounts (you’ll need to verify your identity).
Coinbase Pro Bonus & Referral Code
Coinbase Pro purchases, which have lower fees, unfortunately aren’t eligible to receive the bonus. We do recommend after receiving the $10 Coinbase bonus (which more than covers the fees on Coinbase) however that you then use Coinbase Pro for all future buys and sells, using limit orders.
When placing a limit order on Coinbase Pro you pay a maker fee of 0.4% to buy crypto (which reduced from 0.5% in 2022, although used to be 0.15% some years ago). That is much lower than buying on Coinbase, where the fee is 1.49% to buy with bank account and 3.99% to buy with debit card.
There’s no separate Coinbase promo code or bonus for signing up to Coinbase Pro, although it is a separate website (pro.coinbase.com) and separate mobile app. You can log in using your Coinbase credentials, and move funds onto it from Coinbase to trade with lower fees. There’s also no Coinbase Pro referral code.
Other Coinbase Bonuses & Offers
Other Coinbase perks on top of the Coinbase sign up bonus include a ‘Coinbase Earn’ section where you can earn crypto for completing simple tasks, and the ability to earn staking rewards on certain cryptos you hold.
Coinbase Earn
The Coinbase Earn program at the time of writing has $13 in bonuses available however this regularly changes especially around the time new cryptos are listed on the exchange, so you can continually check back from within your account. It has been up to $50 in the past.
Earn bonus crypto
These bonus tasks are done after you have created an account, and no Coinbase promo code or Coinbase referral link is needed to qualify for these. They can depend on the country you’re in though.
Introduced in 2018, users in 100+ countries have gradually become eligible for the Coinbase Earn program, answering quiz questions and watching educational crypto videos to earn crypto – Stellar Lumens (XLM), ZCash (ZEC), Basic Attention Token (BAT), 0x (ZRX) and others have been available in the past on a first-come, first-serve basis. Once all coins have been claim and one offer expires, Coinbase adds another.
Coinbase Staking
You can currently earn up to 5% APR (annual percentage return), or as its often referred to in crypto staking, APY (annual percentage yield). This functions as a bonus way to earn a passive income in the form of crypto while holding one of the supported coins below in your wallet.
Bonus rewards when you stake crypto on Coinbase
Read our full guide to the best crypto staking platforms as it is possible to earn a higher yield elsewhere if, as many investors do, you open accounts on more than one exchange.
Update – Coinbase added Solana staking in June 2022. For more details our Coinbase review.
How to Claim the Coinbase Sign Up Bonus
- Click on any Coinbase referral link
- Complete the account sign up process – no Coinbase promo code necessary
- Verify your identity
- Purchase $100 worth of any cryptocurrency with 180 days
- The Coinbase sign up bonus is then credited to your Bitcoin wallet balance within four days
Join the Coinbase Affiliate Program
To refer friends yourself and earn $10 per sign up, log in to your account and find your link in the invite section of the settings area.
Your referral link will look something like – https://www.coinbase.com/join/5c6ab07e781d8e019da7a33c
The alpha-numerical Coinbase code in the URL, also referred to you as your referral ID, doesn’t need to be inputted anywhere by the person you refer, it’s just a form of Coinbase reference code for yourself.
To earn more revenue from your referrals, up to 50% commissions when they trade, you can also apply to join the Coinbase affiliate program – you may qualify if you refer a high volume of new users. We reviewed that crypto affiliate program and others.
No Coinbase promo code is required for that affiliate program either, it also only uses tracking links.
A Closer Look at the Coinbase Crypto Exchange
Recently featured in 2022 Superbowl ads, Coinbase has become a household name among the best crypto exchanges.
We also rank it highly for its free crypto wallet that also supports non-fungible tokens. Coinbase is seen as a safe, secure, SEC compliant place to store cryptos and NFTs as a long-term investment.
Some of the exchanges below however are preferred for active day trading, margin trading, copytrading etc. – depending on your goal you might want to open accounts on several platforms to not have all your crypto holdings in one place, and to take advantage of the different bonuses and features each have.
Let’s take a closer look at some of the best Coinbase alternatives on the market.
Coinbase vs Binance
The Binance bonus is $100 in cashback vouchers which debatably is more valuable than $10 in free Bitcoin if you’re a day trader or trade large amounts – making several intraday trades will rack up $100 in fees over time, which you would have paid on Coinbase Pro anyway.
The trading fees are also lower on Binance – 0.1% or 0.075% if you buy and use Binance Coin (BNB) to pay the fees. There’s also an additional 20% discount on trading fees when using an eligible Binance referral link like the ones on this site. You may prefer this to the Coinbase sign up bonus, or decide to get both.
That’s much lower than the 0.4% maker fee on Coinbase, the only disadvantage being some don’t consider Binance to be as fully regulatory compliant as other exchanges. However it has not been closed down despite SEC attention since its founding in 2017.
Cryptoassets are a highly volatile unregulated investment product. No UK or EU investor protection.
Coinbase vs Crypto.com
First-time sign ups at Crypto.com receive $10 free in CRO when opening an account, with referral code cro10. That code is applied automatically using the links on this site.
There are ways to earn a larger bonus however they require buying, locking and staking a higher amount of CRO, the native token of Crypto.com, to earn.
One extra bonus of Crypto.com is you can earn interest on Bitcoin – not through staking as BTC can’t be staked, but because this exchange is also a crypto lending platform. It also has its own metal prepaid VISA card for users to make payments in crypto at retailers.
Cryptoassets are a highly volatile unregulated investment product. No UK or EU investor protection.
Coinbase vs Huobi
The Huobi welcome bonus varies form $150 to $300, depending on the promotion event they’re running at the time and your country of residence. US customers are redirected to HBUS where promos can be different.
It is split up into a wider variety of tasks than Binance and is also often combined with earning free Shiba Inu or Dogecoin, unlike the Coinbase sign up bonus which is free Bitcoin.
For example currently the Huobi Global exchange homepage advertises a $150 + 20000 SHIB offer, requiring the user to register, deposit $100+, spot trade $100+, deposits $2000+, and spot trade $3000+.
So the Huobi exchange bonus, while larger, also requires more of an investment. Extra tasks also include trading futures on the exchange, creating a cloud wallet, and inviting a friend.
Cryptoassets are a highly volatile unregulated investment product. No UK or EU investor protection.
Coinbase vs Bybit
Bybit has a large deposit bonus promo – currently it is running a limited time promotion for up to $3000 in bonuses – however like Binance these can’t be withdrawn, and are mainly used as discounts on trading fees. Also spot trading is excluded, they can only be used to discount your fees when trading perpetual futures.
One difference however is that some of its welcome bonus, which is split up into increments, can be used to trade futures with, and any profits above that initial capital can be actually be withdrawn.
Bybit can’t be beaten for fees if you trade perpetual futures (CFDs, or contracts for difference) as you actually get paid to place limit orders – there’s a 0.025% maker rebate.
We recommend Binance for discounts on spot trading, Bybit for discounted margin trading, Coinbase for free crypto you can invest, and Huobi for its variety of bonuses and free SHIB.
Our Bybit referral code is 25342 which like our Binance referral code is automatically applied by using the links on this site.
Cryptoassets are a highly volatile unregulated investment product. No UK or EU investor protection.
The Verdict
Cryptocurrency exchanges each have their own incentives and promotions which they use to entice customers, and one type might appeal to you more than others. The Coinbase sign up bonus and Coinbase Earn bonuses are useful as free money that you can use to learn about crypto investing and build a portfolio.
The Binance bonus in the form of cashback vouchers are better suited to learning to swing trade with no fees while you’re getting started. On that site a referral code exists, unlike Coinbase, although it automatically gets entered for you.