Coinbase vs Electrum Comparison

A Coinbase account has no seed phrase and no private keys for you to keep. Coinbase holds the keys to the blockchain addresses where customer coins sit, often addresses shared by many customers. You sign in with a password and 2-step verification, and you can take coins out only by asking Coinbase to send them to an address you control. Coinbase's separate self-custody app, the Base app (formerly Coinbase Wallet), works differently and is not covered here.

Electrum creates its own seed phrase: 12 words from the same 2048-word list as BIP39, but with a version number hidden in the phrase's hash instead of a BIP39 checksum, so a wallet that reads only BIP39 phrases cannot restore it. Electrum publishes the format, and it can also restore BIP39 phrases and SLIP-39 shares.

In the US the user agreement is with Coinbase, Inc. and is governed by California law. Its parent, Coinbase Global, Inc., moved its incorporation from Delaware to Texas on 15 December 2025 and has no headquarters, describing itself as remote-first. In the EEA, Coinbase Ireland Limited, Coinbase Europe Limited and Coinbase Germany GmbH are joint controllers of your personal data, and that data can be transferred to Coinbase, Inc. in the US.

Electrum Technologies GmbH, Berlin, develops and distributes the software and hosts electrum.org. The company holds no user accounts and cannot freeze or reverse payments. Anyone can run an Electrum server, and none of the 84 servers in the app's built-in list is on electrum.org.

Coinbase, Inc. was founded in 2012 and has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Coinbase Global, Inc. since April 2014. Coinbase Global's shares trade on Nasdaq under the ticker COIN, so it files annual and quarterly reports with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Thomas Voegtlin created Electrum in November 2011 and founded Electrum Technologies GmbH in 2013. Two developers, Thomas Voegtlin and SomberNight, have write access to the code; website changes and releases must be signed by both.