How Much Does it Cost to Develop a Cryptocurrency Exchange App like Coinbase?

chirag July 8, 2024

Operating since 2011, Coinbase mobile app in the past 10 years has not just managed to become the first unicorn in the cryptocurrency exchange domain but is also now counted as the torchbearer of the segment that the Blockchain and Crypto world look up to.

The platform, at the back of its extensive set of services and effortless UI and UX, has made it possible for even the newcomers to enter the crypto trading industry with a low learnability curve.

The seamlessness and the bridge that app like Coinbase draws between millions of crypto enthusiasts and the flourishing market of Bitcoin and hundreds of crypto assets has led to a newfound business interest among entrepreneurs. And, the popularity that the platform shows through its user base has only fueled the demand for app like Coinbase, the digital currency trading app development. This in turn has led to brands like Rakuten launch their cryptocurrency trading app.

How many users does Coinbase have

Coinbase has 56 million verified users in 2021. The platform has added 13 million new users over the past 3 months alone. This growing user demand for Coinbase mobile app plus the fact that the platform has lighted the path for several other brands to follow have together not gone unnoticed by the many investors around the globe who are more than willing to enter the space and earn their share of benefit.

On that note, let us invest our time further in dissecting the features and cryptocurrency exchange development cost required to develop a crypto trading app

Features of Cryptocurrency Exchange App like Coinbase

Features of Cryptocurrency Exchange App Platform

1. Trading Engine

The trade engine is the base of any best cryptocurrency exchange platform. It plays the role of the main functionality of the exchange by handling:

Transactions Execution
Balances Calculation
Makes Call to Access the Order Books
Match the buying and selling transaction on the exchange

2. User Interface

The UI of a crypto exchange website should be designed in a way that it is not just attractive but also designed in a way that an amazing user experience is guaranteed. The design functionality on this front can be challenging as it’s easier for a crypto trading bot or blockchain app development agency to get caught up in the complexity of the system and not focus on the design.

But when you invest in the right agency, what you get is a UI that allows users to:

Create Orders
See transaction history along with filter options
Access to indicators and graphics
Option to explore all activities on the dashboard
Seamless Fund Withdrawal and Deposit

3. User Management

With almost every cryptocurrency exchange platform witnessing an inflow of at least a 1,00,000 users on a daily basis, it is of prime importance that your user management process is on point.

Now when we talk about the User Management part of your crypto exchange platform, there are three things you will have to take care of –

Sign up and Sign in – Now even though cryptocurrency exchange asks for a number of personal user data, refrain from asking for information from the users at the first stage. The registration process should be one that promises a quick in and out session for the users.
User Creation – A number of exchanges enable the users to create an account by themselves but there are some small sized crypto exchanges that give the role of user creation to the admin.
User’s Verification – Know Your Customer is one of the most crucial parts of a cryptocurrency exchange platform. In your platform, you can offer a number of different verification type to determine the account limits. These verification types can include personal details, SSN, phone number, photo ID etc.

4. Admin Panel

The admins in crypto exchange platforms are responsible for the user management and monitoring of trade. On the basis of the access levels, they should be given the provision to see the User ID, email, name etc. along with the transaction details like time stamp, transaction ID, description, and amount etc.

The panel should allow admins to –

Change trading fees
Manage cryptocurrency listing
Add new cryptocurrencies
The ability to fund accounts in time of tickets and support issues.

5. Wallet

The crypto wallet, as stated in our blockchain digital wallets guide, is a software program which allows the users to receive and send digital currencies. When developing best best app to trade crypto like Coinbase Wallet App, there are three things that you would have to consider –

System and User Wallets – There are multiple types of wallets that you can offer to the users – hot & cold, desktop and mobile, multiple currencies wallet etc. The crypto money of the platform would be stored in the system wallet.
Withdrawal and Deposits – Users would be given the facility to withdraw or deposit amounts through email, ATM, QR code, and transfer, etc. Normally, trading and deposit of digital currencies happen without any account verification but in order to withdraw the amount, it is important to verify the users’ account.
Creation of Transaction – Every user should be given the facility to buy and then sell the cryptocurrency to other users. And for it to happen in real time, you will have to create something like Coinbase wallet app that focuses on smoothness and transaction speed.

6. API

The set of processes and functions which allow external applications to access data or features if the operating system is a must-have part of a cryptocurrency exchange platform.

When deciding on the API implementation, there are three things that have to be considered.

Private and Public API – A Private API is used within the system, for e.g. you can write the bot as it’d help you trade. The Public API, on the other hand, is used by the third-party developers.
Websockets – The technology allows receiving an event-based response from the server without the need of polling server for the reply. It is used for sending information related to market moves, trade changes, etc.
FIX Protocol – It is the standard that is a must-have for every trading platform, no matter what asset is traded. It enables the external Coinbase or Binance app developers to integrate multiple trading platforms, quickly.

7. Analytics

Analytics is another must-have feature of the best cryptocurrency exchanges platform. It consists of – Logs and Charts. While the former helps with the analysis of activities on the cryptocurrency exchange, the latter helps in the creation of charts for proper visibility.

8. Database

Normally, there are approximately two types of databases present in the cryptocurrency exchange website – REDIS and SQL.

In both the databases, one is operative storage which is fast but not meant for storage of secret data and another which is persistent, reliable but a little slow.

Now that we have looked at enough things to get you started in the exchange domain, it is time to look at how much does a cryptocurrency exchange app development cost in the next section.

How Much Does It Cost to Build a Cryptocurrency Exchange App?

With the feature set that we just attended to, the cost of apps like coinbase would come somewhere around the range of USD 57,000 to USD 98,000.

If you wish to get both a website and application developed for your cryptocurrency exchange platform, the amount that you would have to shell out in the name of cryptocurrency exchange app development cost would be somewhere in lines of – USD 1,32,000 to USD 1,45,000.

*Disclaimer: These are only an approximate range. The actual estimate of crypto exchange development cost can only be made when the scope of work is prepared after the analysis of the complete project.

After knowing the crypto exchange development cost, you are now 80% ready to launch your cryptocurrency exchange platform.

Now that we know the crypto exchange development cost, now there are only two things left for you to look at – A. How to make your cryptocurrency exchange secure and B. Some other challenges, besides Security and crypto signals that you will have to prepare for before you start your cryptocurrency exchange business.

How to Make Your Coinbase Like Crypto Exchange Platform Secure

After learning about the cost to start a crypto exchange, let us look at how the apps like Coinbase make its platform secure for the thousands of people dealing with millions of fiat and cryptocurrencies on a daily basis and ensure that no incident of hackers stealing cryptocurrencies from Crypto exchanges happen.

To start with, Coinbase stores 98% customer funds on an offline mode, thus preventing any or all chances of loss and theft. It is not just the funds that are offline but Coinbase also distributes the bitcoins around the world in several safe deposit boxes and vaults.

Talking of data security, the platform employs a number of steps for the protection of users’ privacy. In place of storing the private data on the servers, the platform has kept data disconnected from the internet, making it difficult to be hacked. For additional security, data is split through redundancy and is encrypted with the AES-256 before getting copied on FIPS-140 USB devices and paper backups – and like funds, those USBs are also spread across the world.

In addition to this, Coinbase also asks all the users’ accounts to have a two-step verification process. The authentication requires that the users get a code from their phone to log in over and above the password and username.

Coinbase also follows the best practices of the payment domain, which includes running the traffic on the website over an HTTPS encrypted SSL. Lastly, all the wallets and private keys that Coinbase uses come with an AES-256 encryption.

What Extra Authentication Security Measures Are Used by Coinbase?

To ensure security in the authentication process, Coinbase hashes all the passwords in the database, with the help of bcrypt plus 12-cost factor. Also, when any user creates an account or resets their password, Coinbase only accepts those which are strong passwords.

Lastly, the platform stores all the credentials of the application in a different place than the database and codebase.

Hoping that you would have gotten all your answers by now, let us now come at the last point –

Challenges That You Will Have to Face with Coinbase Mobile App Development and Their Appinventiv Solution

Rise in Competition

The demand that the cryptocurrency market has witnessed ever since the mere concept of Bitcoin was coined is single-handedly responsible for increasing the competition in the digital currency exchange domain.

A number of businesses are continuously entering the space to be a part of the segment and reap the million dollars worth benefits that best apps to trade crypto like Coinbase and Binance take home.

There are quite a few ways to enter the space and come out as a market leader even amidst the rising competition. Ways like:

A Seamless UI and UX in both the app and the website
Take Advantage of the scope that there is a space of entry in the Mobility domain of crypto exchange market
Add a Vast Number of Crypto assets in the Listing
Offer Both Fiat to Crypto and Crypto to Crypto form – like the Bitcoin exchange app – of Trading
Have Decentralized Crypto exchange system in the Expansion Plan

Scalability

Getting your bitcoin exchange app platform prepared for millions of users entering and interacting within the space on a daily basis can be something difficult to manage and plan for a new platform. A scalability issue can lead to a number of challenges like – Slow transaction processing time, delayed fund transfers, frequent lags in the platform, etc.

The only solution to ensure that platform is ready to take the load of thousands of active users with millions of transactions happening on a daily basis, you will have to work on a robust backend architecture that comes with a promising load balancing, etc.

With this, we have now looked at all things enough to get you started with the world of cryptocurrency exchange domain and earn your own share of value at the back of loyal customers. The next step? Get in touch with our team of Blockchain App Developers at Appinventiv, a trustworthy and reliable blockchain app development company . Hire blockchain developers to expand your decentralized journey.