Bitcoin wallet service Coinbase announced that it’s launching new service – Instant Exchange, which allows users to buy and sell the virtual currency while protecting them from its price fluctuations.
Coinbase, a well-known Bitcoin exchange and online wallet provider, launched its new service dubbed Instant Exchange. It’s going to permit Coinbase customers to use such features as sending and receiving instant Bitcoin payments. “Instant Exchange is a great tool for people who want to use bitcoin but prefer to cash out immediately to fiat currency,” according to the company’s blog post.
Coinbase made possible for merchants to convert received bitcoin into their local currency. Now, Instant Exchange can be used by anyone with a local currency wallet. Coinbase clients that transact with US Dollars, Euros, and the Great British Pound can access the Instant Exchange immediately. However, it’s unknown when other local currencies will receive Instant Exchange access.
As far as users will be able to send and receive bitcoins fast, they won’t be exposed to bitcoin exchange rate fluctuation, the company’s spokesperson says. As for conversion fees, Coinbase’s standard Conversion Fee applies to all bitcoin transactions. Instant Exchange requires no additional fees.
”For example, if you wish to use Instant Exchange to send $15-worth of bitcoin to a recipient, the total amount debited from your USD wallet will be $15.15: the amount of USD you wish to convert into bitcoin plus Coinbase’s Conversion Fee. This works the same way in reverse, so if you receive $15-worth of bitcoin and sell it immediately using Instant Exchange, then your USD wallet will be credited $14.85: the USD-value of the bitcoin you converted into USD, minus Coinbase’s Conversion Fee. As always, you can freely withdraw fiat currency from your Coinbase Account back to your own bank account without charge from Coinbase,” explains Coinbase support page.
In addition to that, standard buy/sell limits will apply to the use of Instant Exchange as it is just another way to use Coinbase’s Conversion Service. However, users won’t be able to exceed their aggregate buy/aggregate sell or daily limits while using Instant Exchange for buying and sending bitcoin.
”If you receive an amount of bitcoin for Instant Exchange whose conversion would exceed your daily or aggregate sell limit, all of the bitcoin will be received into your default bitcoin wallet and no conversion will occur. You can separately initiate a bitcoin sell transaction in an amount that does not exceed your sell limit,” reads Coinbase’s site.
The launch of Instant Exchange comes a few months after Coinbase opened its full exchange which appeared to be the first fully compliant Bitcoin exchange. Coinbase has licensing in several US states waiting for further regulatory clarity in other states.
next