Coinbase enables instant trading, raises daily limits to $25,000 for verified US customers
Bank deposits will now be immediately credited to accounts, but they can't be withdrawn until they clear.
Today, Coinbase announced instant buying when using funds deposited from bank accounts, which would previously take up to five days to settle. At the same time, verified customers now have a $25,000 daily limit for deposits and withdrawals, and no limits for how much can be bought or sold at a time once funds have been deposited.
The change is essentially to make new bank deposits take the form of account credit. This lets users buy and sell crypto as usual before the funds clear, but they won't be able to send funds off the platform until they do. Depending on when it's sent and how long it takes the bank to process, this might still take a while.
The update
This is a significant change which might substantially increase Coinbase's usability because the majority of expenses are often involved in the withdrawals and deposits themselves. By further opening the field for bank deposits without the downside of the waiting period, a lot of people might find a feature to take advantage of.
This change only affects the primary Coinbase platform, not Coinbase Pro (formerly known as GDAX) or any of its many other arms, but it's also where most of Coinbase's customers probably are.
These updates only apply to verified Coinbase customers who have provided identification and will initially only be available to customers in the US. The updates are being rolled out over time, starting immediately. Coinbase expects them to be available over the next month.
Even though it's initially available in the US only, Coinbase is also working to bring the same changes to international customers.
"Millions of people turn to Coinbase to get started buying and selling cryptocurrencies. But when someone makes the decision to sign up, they don’t want to wait days before they can start buying cryptocurrency," the announcement reads.
With prices yo-yoing as they are, speedier transactions could end up working either for or against people. But overall, in such a volatile area, speed may always be preferable.
Disclosure: At the time of writing, the author holds ETH, IOTA, ICX, VET, XLM, BTC and ADA.
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