Typically, we love to start our blogs with a jazzy anecdote or a snappy statistic.
But you’re here for a Coinbase affiliate program review, so we will break with tradition and get straight into it.
Read on, and we’ll tell you everything you need to know about the Coinbase affiliate program, including:
- What the heck Coinbase actually does
- Why the crypto niche is a great fit for affiliate marketers
- How the Coinbase affiliate program works (including how to register and how much you can make in affiliate earnings)
- What we love about the Coinbase affiliate program (and what we’d improve)
Without further ado, let’s dive in…
About Coinbase
Based in San Francisco, Coinbase is a digital currency exchange that started out back in 2012 with what it describes as the “radical idea” that sending and receiving Bitcoin should be easy for anyone, anywhere, to achieve.
Turns out that idea proved pretty popular.
Fast forward to the current day, and Coinbase has become one of the world’s biggest and best-known crypto exchanges, being used by almost 100 million verified users in over 100 countries to buy, save, spend, and earn various digital currencies.
The Coinbase trading platform carries over $300 billion in trades every quarter, while the company holds $256 billion in assets.
Every crypto transaction on the platform is subject to 1% in Coinbase fees, so it’s not hard to fathom how Coinbase makes a ton of money (including $4 billion in revenue in the first half of 2021 alone).
Since its first foray into the world of Bitcoin trading, the brand has launched Coinbase Pro, a platform designed for individual traders on which all USD balances are covered by the FDIC, up to a value of $250,000 per customer.
It also has a bunch of other features and offshoots, including:
- Coinbase Commerce: A decentralized platform that allows merchants based anywhere in the world to accept crypto payments.
- Coinbase Custody: An independent business and fiduciary backed by an insurance program protecting offline and digital assets across the Coinbase platform.
- Coinbase Ventures: An company that invests in early-stage crypto and blockchain startups.
- Coinbase Prime: A one-stop shop for managing crypto assets that also offers the same secure offline storage as Coinbase Custody.
- Coinbase Card: A Visa debit card that makes it easy to spend digital currencies.
As if that wasn’t enough, it operates one of the most popular Bitcoin and cryptocurrency affiliate programs. But you probably already knew that, or you wouldn’t be reading this review.
At this point, we need to address the elephant in the room.
Sure, crypto has taken a bit of a beating in recent months.
The combined market cap of digital currencies dropped dramatically in May and June 2021, largely due to China’s efforts to cut down on cryptocurrency mining and the growing proliferation of crypto.
But the market cap still stands at more than $1 trillion — about five times higher than its value two years ago.
It’s still an extremely popular financial system, and one that lots of people are eager to get involved in.
Indeed, a June 2022 survey from Bank of America discovered that 90% of current and potential cryptocurrency investors were planning to buy crypto in the next six months.
In short, there’s still a ton of interest in crypto, which makes it a highly attractive affiliate marketing niche.
How Does the Coinbase Affiliate Program Work?
Like what you hear so far? Interested in making money by promoting Coinbase? Let’s dig into how the Coinbase referral program actually works:
How to Register as a Coinbase Affiliate
Becoming a Coinbase affiliate couldn’t be much easier: just navigate to the brand’s affiliate marketing landing page and hit the big button marked “become an affiliate”. In case you miss it, it looks like this:
After that, you’ll be transported to Coinbase’s affiliate partner, Impact, to carry out a relatively simple application process in which you’ll be asked a bunch of information about you and your website, including the primary methods you use to generate traffic.
All applications are manually reviewed by Impact to make sure it only accepts affiliate marketers who are a good fit for the Coinbase brand.
Impact says this process should take no more than two business days, although we’ve heard a few people say their applications took a little longer.
What Commission Rates Does Coinbase Pay?
Coinbase’s commission rates are pretty simple to understand.
When you refer new customers to the platform and they start making transactions, you pick up a referral bonus equivalent to 50% of their trading fees for the first three months they spend on the platform.
What Is the Cookie Duration for the Coinbase Affiliate Program?
Coinbase has a 30-day cookie window.
In other words, once someone clicks your affiliate link and registers as a Coinbase user, you’ve got 30 days for them to make a transaction.
As long as they do that, you’ll earn a commission on their Coinbase charges for the next three months.
What Payment Methods Does Coinbase Offer?
Coinbase offers two electronic payment methods:
- Direct to your bank account
- Via PayPal
All “actions” you drive are locked in 15 days after the end of the month in which they’re tracked, and are invoiced on the 17th of the month after locking.
Commissions are then paid out 30 days from the end of the invoice date.
One other thing to note here: the affiliate program has a low payment threshold of just $10 (or your local currency equivalent).
That means you only need to earn $10+ to receive your commissions; a lot of affiliate programs have much higher thresholds.
Pros & Cons of the Coinbase Affiliate Program
Still not sure whether to become a Coinbase affiliate? Just couldn’t be bothered to read the previous 900 words? Here’s our take on the biggest pros and cons of Coinbase’s affiliate program:
Coinbase Affiliate Program Pros
Massive brand awareness, which makes for a comparatively easy “sell”.
High commission rate of 50% on the trading fees paid by people who click your affiliate links.
Lots of marketing assets to help with promoting Coinbase, including logos and banners in various sizes.ro
Full-time affiliate marketing manager on hand to help out with any queries and maximize your earnings.
Superb affiliate marketing software, courtesy of Impact Radius, makes it simple to track your commissions.
Coinbase Affiliate Program Cons
Although the commission rate is high, the recurring commission payments only last for three months, unlike some crypto affiliate programs that offer lifetime commissions.
Surprisingly small range of payment methods (just bank account and PayPal), with no option to be paid in crypto.
Anecdotally, we’ve heard that a lot of affiliates get rejected from Coinbase’s affiliate program.
We’ve also heard it can take a long time for new customers to be verified, which is a concern given the 30-day cookie window.
Conclusion: Is Coinbase’s Affiliate Program Right for You?
We’re not saying that being a Coinbase affiliate is all milk and honey.
There are a couple things we don’t love about its terms and conditions — things that other crypto affiliate programs do better.
And there’s the whole issue about whether it’s even a good idea to get involved in cryptocurrency at the moment.
Unfortunately, we can’t predict the future. But if you are looking to become a crypto affiliate, there’s definitely a lot to like about Coinbase — not least the fact that it’s such a huge name. Don’t underestimate how big a trust factor that can be.
One other issue: the crypto space is extremely competitive.
So much has been written about the world of digital currency exchange that it’s very hard to rank for high-intent keywords.
However, we can help you out with that.
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