Coinbase Wallet

Wallet

When I sent MATIC from my wallet, Coinbase automatically chose the Polygon network where I had my MATIC tokens stashed. No surprises there and no settings to change.

What was surprising is that Coinbase Wallet shows sending amounts in USD as well as the crypto token quantity. MetaMask, the most popular competitor, shows these values in crypto tokens. Score one for Coinbase Wallet; after all, we still think in USD (or our local currency).

To get the receiving address, you can scan a QR code, copy/paste the address, or use the ENS-compatible name for the wallet described in the how-to later in the article.

Coinbase Wallet lets you adjust the network fee for ETH-compatible network transactions, a feature made possible by EIP-1559, an improvement to the Ethereum network that allows fee adjustments.

Buying Crypto

Although Coinbase is a standalone app, you can connect it to your Coinbase (Pay) account to fund purchases. However, purchases are limited to assets supported by the Chrome extension (Solana and ETH-based tokens). On the Coinbase exchange, you’ll find a wider selection – but not all are supported by the wallet.

MetaMask, which we’ve also reviewed, offers four ways to buy crypto (including Coinbase Pay).

Swaps

I used Coinbase Wallet to swap MATIC for USDC stablecoin. The wallet app compared exchange rates from 21 different sources (liquidity pools) and gave me the best price possible from these markets.

However, I couldn’t adjust the slippage (acceptable price range) like I can on MetaMask or Uniswap.