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Coinbase added 5 million new users in the last 10 months Coinbase added 5 million new users in the last 10 months
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Coinbase added 5 million new users in the last 10 months

Coinbase added 5 million new users in the last 10 months

Cover art/illustration via CryptoSlate. Image includes combined content which may include AI-generated content.

Coinbase, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the U.S., has on-boarded 5 million new users in the past 10 months and now claims to have over 30 million users. However, many users questioned the legitimacy of this data, alleging the exchange could be misleading the public.

A significant increase in the number of people joining Coinbase

The volatility and uncertainty surrounding the crypto market managed to attract a lot of interest, pushing cryptocurrencies out of the shadows and into the mainstream. The growing interest in the crypto industry is mirrored in the steady increase in users some of the world’s largest exchanges have seen in the past couple of years.

This seems to be the case with Coinbase, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the U.S. The San Francisco-based company has reportedly gained 5 million new users in the past 10 months alone, and now has over 30 million users.

Alistair Milne, a crypto entrepreneur,and investor, shared a Google Spreadsheet with data showing the astronomic growth in users Coinbase saw since 2014.

The curve shows that over five million or 16 percent of Coinbase’s current users created their accounts during the bear market. While it’s hard to say whether this was driven by an inherent optimism that the crypto market will recover or sheer curiosity, it doesn’t take away from the fact that crypto adoption has been growing.

More accounts don’t mean more crypto users

However, a large part of the crypto community questioned the data presented by Milne, saying that the data could be misleading. With Google trends for “Coinbase” not reflecting the increase in popularity Coinbase has seen with its users, many were left wondering whether all of those users were new.

Coinbase interest over time
Google Trends data showing interest over time for the search term “Coinbase” (Source: Google Trends)

A few users claimed that their accounts still existed even after they deleted them, but these allegations were largely unconfirmed. Many others pointed out that no data was showing how many daily active users Coinbase has, which means that a large portion of the new accounts was dormant.

Having your user base skyrocket like this could also cause huge problems for Coinbase. Milne’s data showed that an average of 16,500 new accounts have been created every day in the past 10 months. That means that Coinbase, which had around 500 employees last fall, had to do 16,500 KYC checks every single day.

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