If you’re getting into bitcoin for the first time, you might be wondering if you should use Coinbase or Binance exchanges. I’d imagine that you’ve spent quite some time on Google, trying to find the most essential information.
What’s the best bitcoin/crypto wallet?
How does it work, and why are there 100 million different coins on coinmarketcap?
So, you go to Google, search “Where should I buy bitcoin?” and the beast of crypto immediately shows up at the top of page #1.
Is Coinbase Any Good?
Apparently, Coinbase is the most trusted cryptocurrency exchange. They are so legit, in fact, that they are the only crypto company listed on the S&P 500.
Wait a minute, does that make them more trustworthy, or less? Do you really want to buy bitcoin from a giant tech company?
How’s their privacy policy and security? Do they lock down your KYC data in a secret vault?
Problems With Coinbase
No, Coinbase customer service reps were successfully targeted in a social engineering attack as recently as May 2025. The hackers got customer’s full names, photo ID, physical addresses, transaction histories and wallet balances. That’s so dangerous!
If you’re a Coinbase customer, you’ve likely received several scam calls. It’s been a recurring issue for several years, and this data leak will certainly make it worse.
Big tech companies like Coinbase will often set up their customer service departments overseas to maximize profits at the expense of their customers.
If your crypto gets frozen while in Coinbase custody, good luck getting a quick response from customer service. Good. Luck. It is a supremely stressful experience to lose access to your own money, especially when you can’t get a proper response from a real human being.
Remember: Not your keys, not your coins!
Let me tell you about an experience I recently had with Coinbase Commerce.
I needed to subscribe to a keyword research tool to improve Your Sovereign Family’s SEO. As usual, I searched for a service that accepts payment in bitcoin, or in this case, crypto. This particular SEO Tool company accepts crypto using Coinbase Commerce.
I was surprised when I went to pay and I saw that I couldn’t pay directly to a bitcoin address. Instead I had to connect a wallet like Brave Wallet or Metamask (multi-coin wallets).
I thought, “Okay, I guess I’ll just get one of these wallets then and get this over with.”
Then I saw that Coinbase Commerce wasn’t even allowing me to pay with bitcoin. I was forced to use ethereum!
This is the kind of BS you have to put up with when dealing with Coinbase.
What About Binance?
Binance was founded in China in 2017, and is currently the most used crypto exchange in the world.
Like Coinbase, Binance also takes custody of your bitcoin/crypto. You can withdraw to your own wallet, but by default, they control your coins.
If you look into the reputation of their customer service, you’ll find many stories of people having their funds frozen, and trying to navigate through chat bots and useless customer service reps to try to correct the issue.
Fortunately, this Binance user from the above Reddit post was able to regain access to his money. With great relief, he reminded everyone to keep their crypto out of exchanges whenever possible.
Most users of Binance and Coinbase will never have their funds frozen, but when you trust your money with third parties like Coinbase, Binance, or a big bank, they have the ability to freeze your money.
In The Age of Bitcoin, why would any of us be willing to put up with this? This is bitcoin! You only have to download a wallet, buy btc directly into self-custody, and you become a financial sovereign. Nobody can freeze your funds or close your account.
Bitcoin, used properly, is pure financial freedom.
Cash Out of Coinbase
Coinbase and Binance are two of the most popular exchanges for new bitcoiners, but there are better options out there.
Take a look at this list of the most trusted crypto exchanges. Notice that Binance and Coinbase are in the top 5. Consider this list the “Top 50 Cryptocurrency Exchanges to Avoid at ALL COSTS!”
Bitcoin is an incredibly powerful tool for freedom — a beautiful gift for sovereign individuals and families.
But only if you’re smart about how you use it.
If you’ve never used Coinbase before, good. But if you’re a current customer, it’s time to cash out from Coinbase and all companies like Coinbase so you can take control of your own wealth.
When you buy bitcoin on Coinbase, they keep records of all your transactions and bitcoin addresses. They sell this information to governments and chain analysis firms, so you have to take the necessary steps to clean your coins of identifying information.
How to Get Your Coins Off Coinbase
This is very important if you care about your anonymity, so let’s look at your options for fixing this mess while staying invested in bitcoin.
Sell It All and Buy It Back Privately
The best course of action here, is to just sell all your cryptocurrency on Coinbase and withdraw the cash to your bank account. Keep in mind that this could leave you with a huge tax bill if you’ve made significant gains. If you can’t afford to sell your bitcoin and crypto, the next option will be for you.
If it makes sense for you to sell and cash out, you’ll now have a bunch of trashy fiat in your bank account. What now?
Buy bitcoin from an ATM, or a company that respects your privacy. There are several options that are better than Coinbase. They have superior customer service, they don’t sell scammy altcoins, and they encourage self-custody.
Most importantly, they don’t sell your KYC information.
My top recommendation for Canadians and Europeans is Bull Bitcoin. They are incredibly feature rich, and they have best-in-class customer service who will actually put in the time to guide you through the process.
Use my Bull Bitcoin referral link for 0.25% off your bitcoin purchases. I will receive a small commission.
If you’re in the US, I recommend River or Bitcoin Well. Check them out and see which you prefer. As long as you always take self-custody of your bitcoin, you can’t go wrong with either.
Coinjoin and Layer Hopping
If you can’t afford to sell your bitcoin due to massive gains — first off, congratulations. There is still an effective option for you take back your privacy.
You need to break the connection between your name and your bitcoin addresses so that you can have forward privacy, and the best ways to do that are coinjoins or swaps into lightning.
A coinjoin is a collaborative bitcoin transaction, where all participants combine their chunks of bitcoin (utxo) together to obscure the link between addresses and identities. It can effectively anonymize your UTXO, but the process is very expensive.
You need to run your own bitcoin node, or download wasabi wallet to do a coinjoin. This is a more advanced privacy technique, but very effective, so it’s worth exploring.
Another option is layer hopping, which refers to swapping from bitcoin to lightning, and then back. This method is cheap and easy, but not necessarily as private. Still, it should provide some privacy if you need to withdraw your bitcoin from an exchange like Coinbase or Binance.
Summary: Coinbase vs. Binance
In the battle of Coinbase vs. Binance, choose neither. These companies and other major exchanges are very harmful to bitcoin privacy, have awful customer service, and they have the ability to freeze your coins on a whim. If you want to be sovereign, you need to avoid them at all costs.
They are very convenient, and the majority of bitcoin buyers will gravitate to them, but that’s only because they don’t know about the vastly superior alternatives.
Either that, or they’re degenerate altcoin gamblers. Or perhaps they aren’t willing to take on the responsibility that comes with self-custody.
But if you’re reading this blog, you aspire to be sovereign, and bitcoin self-custody is a powerful tool for financial freedom, location independence and privacy.
Don’t make the mistake of using Coinbase or Binance.
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