Topic: Coinbase price difference while buying BTC.. (Read 188 times)

Ahh ok, I take your point. I thought we were talking only about the BTC/USD market on Coinbase Pro, as that is the trade that OP wanted to make. Unless you are trading very large amounts on that market, then the amount that your market order will move the price is pretty insignificant. Looking right now with the price at $56,000, there are around $700,000 of sell orders before you reach $56,100, and you would need to buy over $3.5 million in bitcoin in one go for your final price to end 0.5% away from your starting price. If you want to buy now (i.e. not wait for multiple ladder orders to fill, not pay attention to trading indicators, etc.), then for the vast majority of people buying up to ten thousand dollars of bitcoin at once, the difference between a market order and a limit order will be negligible. As OP is just looking to buy and hold and not actively trade (as he was going to do on Coinbase rather than Coinbase Pro), then the easiest way for him to save a significant amount in fees (~$150 or so), is to simply place a market order for $10,000. He will still end up far better off than if he had bought on plain old Coinbase.

I take your point that if you are using very volatile markets with poor volumes, or if you are more interested in reading charts to find the optimal buy in point, then limit orders are the better option.

The issue isn't the fee it is the price.  If you use a market order you do not know how high the price you get is over what you see when placed.  This is especially true during low volume and fast moving markets.   The savings you get with a limit will most likely off set any fee you pay.

I use Coinbase Pro and ladder the amount I want to buy with limits.  With patience, I often get my price.  Also, I sometimes put in a very low limit price overnight and have been pleasantly surprised when the order is filled.  

Take a look at the wild price action on ETH on yesterday 5/10 and you will see what I mean.

Here's a chart of BCH - currently at 1452 - looking at recent action you don't what a market buy.  If you put in some limit orders starting at 1350  and goin up some will probably get filled at a price better then 1452.  This is just an example.  There are other things to look at like the bollenger bands.

Why? On Coinbase Pro the fee paid will be 0.5% regardless of if he is a maker with a limit order or a taker with a market order. It only becomes cheaper to be a maker than a taker if he has traded more than $50,000 in the last 30 days.

If you want to buy at the current price and set a limit order, even at just a single dollar below the market price, there is no guarantee your order will fill. If the price moves up, then you will be left with an unfilled order and the decision on whether or not to buy at the new, higher price.

I don't use market buys.   I use market limits.  Even if you want to buy at or near the market use a limit order.

I also ladder my orders and wait. 

Thank you for this!.. Very good info!

I don't use Coinbase, but a little of my experience as an INDODAX user has also experienced the same thing, where when the BTC price was at $ 56000 (for example) usually the Bitcoin price in INDODAX was different from other big exchangers like Binance, Bitmex, KuCoin and other top exchangers. Prices at INDODAX are around 1% -3% higher than the prevailing prices at large exchangers.

This is probably because INDODAX is used by most Indonesians in buying and selling Bitcoin, the spread can be so far because the demand for Indonesians is bigger and denser, so it cannot control prices because the balance of trading volume and the number of people in need is not fulfilled. Maybe the Coinbase case is also like what I experienced this.

But why would that problem only occur on Coinbase? As those order books are filled by people at whatever prices they want to sell their Bitcoins at, it is the same on exchange no?

That there is slippage between exchange is normal to some degree even though bots should close that gap between those larger exchange pretty much. Still I understand the concerns as half a percent on top of the costs for trading sums up to a hefty fee indeed.

So almost everyone above is completely wrong; this has nothing to do with rapid price fluctuations. JeromeTash is almost correct when they talk about the lowest selling order, but on Coinbase the spread between the market value and the lowest selling order is usually in the region of a few bucks, maybe $10-20 at most, and certainly nowhere near $300.

The correct answer is here:

You can. Sign up to Coinbase Pro, and you can transfer any money in your Coinbase account to your Coinbase Pro account instantly and for free. You can then place a market order on Coinbase pro and only pay a total fee of 0.5% of the market value, rather than a ~0.5% spread and a 1.49% fee on top.

You know this actually happened to me when I was back in India trying to buy some Bitcoins through Zebpay. The price actually was high not just for that particular time but consistently. Apparently they explained it by using the "high demand on the app" but I do think this is indeed a problem.
Even if it's not Coinbase but some other exchange..but then again when I sold BTC on the Zebpay, I actually got more than the value of Bitcoins on google. Try and use some other apps. Local one's. There might be a lot of pending orders and they might be increasing the price who knows?
But rest assured it's a common occurrence... Don't worry much. Choose some other app. They usually provide instant withdraws, deposits, buying, selling therefore it's always hard for them to keep up with the demand.

On certain exchanges like Luno, there's an express service which generally charges higher for the sake of convenience. Newbies usually pay more before later realizing that the exchange rips them off.

But now, even P2P rates are pretty crappy in my country too. 3-4% markup.

I think that buying and selling bitcoin is the same for everyone, in my country some apps that I use have mark up price when buying and lower price when selling, I think that it is what it reallly is. I think what you have OP is a normal thing.

306 dollars difference is a little more than normal for many people who are not familiar with crypto. But,just after registering in any exchange you will take a message warning you about the volatile and risk of trading also the risk of cryptocurrencies. Which means, due to the huge price movements in short periods of the time bitcoin can be traded for different prices in different exchanges. For example, during the sharp price movements, I even saw more than 1K difference in exchanges. However, I'm not sure if your order is going to be proceed when there is too much price difference.

Alright... thanks everyone.
Makes sense.. I wish I would've signed up for Coinbase Pro to save some $$.
Yes, it's from Coinbase.com not the app.

I am not using coinbase to buy or sell, but is there anything like limit and market price on coinbase, this prices can be different at times, know that the price you are seeing may not be the market price of bitcoin but the limit order price, this can result to difference in the price you want to buy bitcoin and the normal price you see. I am not sure of this but just what I think could be the cause.

When buying using services like coinbase you don't have a choice to get the coin at the market price or price of your choice, the price quoted for you is the lowest selling order, but the lowest selling order is usually a little higher than the market price and the highest buying order.

The only choice you have is to carry out the trading for yourself in coinbase pro. That way you won't incur such hefty fees and rates. You can also use other exchanges like Kraken, Gemini

Is that price from coinbase.com or the app wallet?

There is a big gap in their price on the wallet compared to their Coinbase pro.

Try to check Coinbase pro to switch.

If you are not satisfied with their price, you can switch to another exchange Binance would be a great option.

And actually, the market price you are telling is the general price of Bitcoin, not all exchanges are the same.

IIRC, quoted prices is the value of the last purchase, not a general fixed amount. This is also why it is different on different exchanges.
If the price is different from the one offered to you when you were about to buy, then it would mean that the current sell order was for a higher amount than that in the previously concluded trade.

Most exchanges are showing a reminder that the market is too volatile and price varies from time to time. So if they're quoting a lower or quite higher than the market price.

That's the reason why it's different. You can always look for the other exchanges that will satisfy you with its current market price and have it compared which is better for you.

I didn't proceed.. that price difference is kinda concerning.
One would think that you would be purchasing at the price they are quoting at market.

Did you proceed? If not, then have you tried again if the difference is the same? Coz such price difference is actually normal considering bitcoin price is so volatile right now.