Metamask vs Coinbase Wallet: A Comprehensive Comparison! 🚀
Jack Moreau
Sep 2023
8 min read
Fact checked
Introduction: With the ever-evolving world of cryptocurrencies, it is essential to find the right wallet to securely store and manage your digital assets. We have compared Metamask vs Coinbase Wallet, two of the most popular cryptocurrency wallets, to help you find the one that best suits your needs. We have taken into account factors such as ease of use, security measures, supported platforms, number of cryptocurrencies and more to help you pick the best wallet!
Metamask and Coinbase Wallet are two of the biggest crypto wallet services available today. Founded in 2016 and 2018 respectively, Coinbase and MetaMask are both based in the USA and San Francisco and have over 500 employees respectively.
Coinbase Wallet Website
MetaMask has over 30 million users and over 10 million downloads on Android with a 4.4 star rating and 200,000 reviews. It also has 10 million downloads as a browser extension with a 3.2 star rating and 3,000 reviews.
MetaMask Wallet
Coinbase Wallet is an open-source non-custodial cryptocurrency wallet that was launched by Coinbase in 2018. The Coinbase Wallet was initially released as a mobile app for iOS and Android in 2018.
Coinbase Wallet Website
With the Coinbase Wallet, users can manage their cryptocurrencies in a private and secure manner. Coinbase Wallet is a self-custody crypto wallet that allows users to store, manage, and trade cryptocurrencies and NFTs.
Currently Coinbase wallet offers support for EVM based blockchains like Ethereum and Avalanche, Bitcoin, Litecoin, Dogecoin and Solana. This allows it's users to easily connect to DeFi Dapps on these blockchains such as Avee, Compound, Uniswap and many others.
The Coinbase Wallet was initially released as a mobile app for iOS and Android in 2018. The wallet quickly grew and has today achieved over 5 million downloads across Android and IOS with a 4 star rating based on over 60,000 reviews.
Coinbase Wallet
In 2019, Coinbase also released its web browser extension. Coinbase has reached over 1 million downloads on it's wallet browser extension and a 3 star rating based on 300 reviews.
Metamask vs Coinbase Wallet User Experience
To get started with MetaMask is easy, users need to first download the mobile or browser wallet and create or import an existing wallet.
Those who have to create a new wallet will also need to provide a strong password and write down the 12-word seed phrase somewhere safely.
The user experience of MetaMask has improved significantly as of late with improvements in usability and design. The browser wallet looks much better and now also offers a portfolio view where users can easily access all the features.
MetaMask Portfolio View
The wallet now also integrates many more features within the wallet so that users who value convenience can execeute lending, trades, buys and more right within the app.
The Coinbase wallet offers a slick and modern looking wallet for users that want to buy, sell, trade and store their tokens and NFTs.
It is a free and easy-to-use wallet for managing digital assets on Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, Polygon, Avalanche, Arbitrum, Optimism, Base and Solana.
Coinbase Wallet Dapps
For those that prefer to use the Coinbase Browser Wallet, it's currently supported for Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Brave, and Opera Browser.
The mobile app allow users a simple way to store their digital assets, buy NFTs, earn staking rewards on their assets and access DeFi.
DeFi dApps like Uniswap and Aave can easily be accessed through the browser available within the app. The Coinbase wallet is easy to use and offers one of the best designed wallets in the market.
Metamask vs Coinbase Wallet: Product Features
MetaMask is a fully open-source cryptocurrency wallet that facilitates token swaps by aggregating data from various decentralised exchanges. This includes Dapps like Uniswap, Sushiswap, Pancakeswap, 1Inch and others ensure the best price with the lowest network fees.
MetaMask Dapps
In addition to swaps, Metamask also provides support for NFT tokens on EVM-compatible blockchains such as Ethereum, Polygon, Base, Optimism, Arbitrum in addition to Solana.
MetaMask Blockchains
Metamask supports over 10,000 tokens, including Dai, USDC and USDT for Ethereum, Polygon, and BSC, while Coinbase Wallet also supports over 10,000 tokens including USDT and USDC for Ethereum, BNB Chain, Avalanche, Polygon, Solana and Optimism.
Users can also easily import NFTs into MetaMask by copying the NFT's contract address and token ID from marketplaces like OpenSea.
MetaMask NFTs
Additionally, users can stake their assets on both Ethereum and Polygon directly through the MetaMask wallet. The staking functionality is not available directly in the browser wallet so users have to go to the portfolio view where additional features can be found.
MetaMask Staking
For added convenience, MetaMask now also allows it's users to buy cryptocurrencies via payment methods such as Credit/Debit Card, ACH, SEPA and via multiple third-party providers such as PayPal, Apple Pay, SEPA, Mercuryo, Transak, Sardine, MoonPay.
MetaMask Buy Crypto With Card
For users that wish to transfer their cryptocurrencies from one blockchain to another, MetaMask has also integrated a bridging functionality. Users will however have to pay a 0.875% bridging fee for the convenience of in-wallet transfers.
Bridging
And for users that want to receive help with their tax reporting, MetaMask has also integrated with tax software company Koinly.
Hardware wallet users will also be happy to hear that MetaMask today supports connection to three wallets including Ledger, Trezor, Keystone and Lattice.
Whether on mobile or the browser wallet, Coinbase offers users the ability to swap between their assets. These swap services are possible via integrations to third party decentralised exchanges in the backend.
Coinbase currently charges a flat fee of 1% on all swaps on top of the network fee that is paid to the validators of the network. The swaps will execute at a price within 3% of the estimate or the transaction will not go through.
Coinbase Browser Wallet
At the time of writing, swaps are available for coins based on Ethereum, BSC, Avalanche, Polygon and the Solana Blockchain via third-party apps like Uniswap or Sushiswap.
The Coinbase Wallet is an open source wallet that also supports NFTs on Ethreum and Polygon. Staking is also supported within the wallet so that users can easily stake their ETH or MATIC and earn staking rewards.
Coinbase Wallet NFTs
Users that already have an account on Coinbase can connect their account to the wallet. This way they can easily buy cryptocurrencies within the wallet via Coinbase Pay.
Users can also easily create multiple wallet address if they wish to have different wallets for different purposes, and even follow well known profiles via the wallet and track their on-chain acitivity.
MetaMask like other non-custodial wallets is a safe and private wallet option where the keys and assets are always locally stored on the device of users.
When user create a new wallet, they are given a 12-word seed phrase that they have to keep safe and a password that they have to provide each time they login.
To ensure the robustness of their systems, they've had their libraries subjected to multiple security audits by renowned firms like Cure53 and Least Authority, with reports made available to the public spanning dates from August 2017 to March 2023.
MetaMask Hardware Support
To further bolster the security of MetaMask, they actively engage with the security research community through a Bug Bounty Program. This program invites external researchers to identify and report potential vulnerabilities.
Additionally, MetaMask also provides specialised access to authenticated test environments for blockchain security specialists and DeFi community members.
Any non-security-related bugs are directed to be reported on GitHub. Throughout their security stance, MetaMask highlights the importance of responsible behavior, urging against any malicious actions that might jeopardize their users or the project.
As for the Coinbase Wallet, self-custody is also central to its design which ensures that users have full authority over their crypto assets and private keys. This means that without a user's recovery phrase, even Coinbase itself cannot access the assets held within.
This open source wallet also offers advanced security measures ranging from biometrics to security locks, ensuring assets are safeguarded across various devices.
For those looking to further bolster their security, the wallet provides compatibility with Ledger hardware wallets via its browser extension.
Coinbase Wallet Ledger
Navigating the world of DeFi is safer with Coinbase Wallet as it ensures transaction transparency through token approval alerts, letting users know precisely which assets a Dapp might access.
Coinbase Wallet Transparency
Coinbase has a fully decentralized, crowdsourced security audit and bug bounty solution called WEFUZZ. Furthermore, it offers transaction previews to give a clear picture of potential changes in token balances during dapp interactions.
And by leveraging a mix of databases, the wallet can identify and warn users about potentially harmful applications. Furthermore, it offers transaction previews to give a clear picture of potential changes in token balances during Dapp interactions.
Coinbase Wallet Security
The wallet also actively guards against deceptive practices like spam tokens by concealing those identified as malicious and allowing users to report any suspicious ones.
Coinbase Wallet Dapp Blocklist
Lastly, Coinbase Wallet goes a step further by offering advanced features like support for multiple Ethereum and Solana addresses. This facilitates users who wish to maintain separate web3 identities and asset pools.
Metamask vs Coinbase Conclusion
In conclusion, both MetaMask and Coinbase Wallet are robust and popular choices in the world of cryptocurrency wallets.
MetaMask has established itself as a leading wallet service particularly for users interacting with Ethereum and other EVM-compatible blockchains.
With over 30 million users worldwide, MetaMask's strength lies in its simplicity and basic user interface, making it a go-to choice for those engaging with EVM-compatible dApps.
Its open-source nature, support for a wide array of tokens, and proactive security measures further enhance its appeal.
The wallet's in-app swaps feature, facilitated by platforms like Uniswap, Sushiswap, and 1inch, provides users with seamless trading experiences but with a high 0.875% swap fee.
On the other hand, Coinbase Wallet offers a sleek and more well design user-friendly experience with support for not only EVM-compatible blockchains but also Solana.
With over 5 million users, Coinbase Wallet integrates seamlessly with the Coinbase platform making it an attractive option for existing Coinbase users.
It supports a wide range of tokens and offers in-app swaps via Uniswap or Sushiswap with a 1% fee. However, unlike MetaMask, Coinbase Wallet does not currently support staking.
In terms of hardware wallet support, MetaMask has a slight edge, supporting five hardware wallets compared to Coinbase Wallet's support for Ledger.
Both wallets are non-custodial ensuring users have full control over their funds. While both have taken measures to enhance security, MetaMask stands out with its built-in phishing intelligence that alerts users to potential risks.
Jack is a crypto writer and reviewer who has been active in the space since he caught the crypto bug in 2017. With a passion for trying out new shiny things, Jack is always eager to try the latest cryptocurrency exchanges, wallets or DeFi applications.
