Coinbase Is Making $2.7 Million a Day (bitcoin.com)

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Coinbase Is Making $2.7 Million a Day (bitcoin.com)

Posted by BeauHD on Tuesday January 23, 2018 @10:43AM from the raking-in-the-money dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bitcoin News: In information released to shareholders this week, Coinbase revealed that it recorded turnover of $1 billion last year, which works out at an astonishing $2.74 million a day or $2,000 a minute. As America's largest bitcoin broker, Coinbase claims the lion's share of the money that's pouring into the crypto space at a dizzying rate. 2017 was a bumper year for all crypto exchanges, which reported record numbers across the board: new signups, new staff hired, new trading pairs, and new revenue. Those revenue streams have turned into a torrent that has caused Coinbase' coffers to swell. Recode reports that the company's revenue exceeded $1 billion last year, most of it derived from the trading fees it levies. These vary from between 0.25% and 1%. and quickly add up: in the past 24 hours, 36,000 BTC were traded on Coinbase, accounting for more than 15% of the total market. Coinbase isn't the world's largest exchange (and is technically a broker rather than a conventional exchange -- that duty falls to its GDAX subsidiary) but it's the best known and carries great weight in the cryptocurrency industry.

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Great Deal! by Mikkeles · 2018-01-23 10:46 · Score: 1

I gotta fuckin' pay to use my money!

--
Great minds think alike; fools seldom differ.
1. Re:Great Deal! by Anonymous Coward · 2018-01-23 11:03 · Score: 2
  
  Use GDAX. The fees are lower (as low as 0) and you already pretty much have an account with them if you have an account with CoinBase. Same username and password and all of that.
Fees by A10Mechanic · 2018-01-23 10:46 · Score: 1

Spend $20 in bitcoin, pay about $20 in 'Transaction Fees' to make it happen. What would you say if a brick-and-mortar store charged that kind of fee, just to buy something?
1. Re:Fees by Scarred+Intellect · 2018-01-23 10:59 · Score: 1
  
  Coinbase charges 1%. Credit cards charge 4%.
2. Re:Fees by Anonymous Coward · 2018-01-23 11:01 · Score: 0
  
  no
  spend .90$ and send $20-20,000. 1 Confirmation in 3 mins.
3. Re:Fees by Anonymous Coward · 2018-01-23 11:06 · Score: 0
  
  Coinbase wanted $1.99 from me in order to sell $30 USD worth of BTC. So I'm not sure where your 1% is coming from, unless 6.6% == 1% for small values of 6.6% and large values of 1%.
4. Re:Fees by Anonymous Coward · 2018-01-23 11:08 · Score: 0
  
  "Credit cards charge 4%."
  Only if you don't pay it off and carry a balance.
  Although, getting cash does start immediately; and is at a higher rate.
5. Re:Fees by mishehu · 2018-01-23 11:12 · Score: 1
  
  Coinbase charges 1%. Credit cards charge 4%.
  Credit cards charge a fee to the merchant at time of transaction, at least in the USA they do. 4% is a very high rate for a merchant to pay. I most commonly hear around 1% or less, depending on whether it's a smaller, low volume store versus a big-box retailer.
6. Re:Fees by Anonymous Coward · 2018-01-23 11:18 · Score: 2, Informative
  
  No low volume store in the U.S. gets 1%. My main client is a medium sized business (~16 million/year) and they pay 2.4% + $0.30/transaction. Smaller business will never get better rates than e.g. Square @ 2.75% or Venmo @ 3%. Extremely large businesses like Target and Wallmart are down around 1.5%.
7. Re:Fees by Anonymous Coward · 2018-01-23 11:22 · Score: 0
  
  You aren't doing it right! Do your trades on GDAX and use limit orders. You pay 0 to convert any crypto to USD or vice versa. You can also move your bitcoin out of GDAX to a private wallet with 0 fees
  It's all these newbies that have no clue how exchanges work why coinbase rolls in so much cash, They're either doing market orders on GDAX, or buying/selling directly on coinbase.
8. Re:Fees by Scarred+Intellect · 2018-01-23 11:42 · Score: 1
  
  My 1% came directly from TFS. Sorry to confuse you by referring to the news summary we're discussing.
9. Re:Fees by Scarred+Intellect · 2018-01-23 11:45 · Score: 2
  
  My data was old, my mistake. And wrong. I'd last heard they were 2%-4%, with most around the high 3's...but that was some years ago. A quick google search proves myself wrong. Still, a valid point, I think: we often pay fees to use our money every day.
10. Re: Fees by Anonymous Coward · 2018-01-23 11:55 · Score: 0
  
  And even lower if Coinbase got their act together and implemented batching and segwit.
11. Re: Fees by Anonymous Coward · 2018-01-23 11:56 · Score: 1
  
  Your client needs to renegotiate.
  I just shopped around a few different merchant companies for my business. I do need to note I'm in Canada, but do a lot of business in the US and hold US Currency here in Canada.
  My business does maybe $30K a year via credit cards (most clients direct deposit to my accounts) and I was quoted 2.4% + $0.10 per transaction. This was Moneris in Canada.
  One of my US clients gets ~1.6% + $0.10 with Wells Fargo & Authorize.net. They are on a "cost plus" plan, so the rate can vary slightly depending on the type of card processed, and the $0.10 is strictly for Authorize.net.
12. Re:Fees by Anonymous Coward · 2018-01-23 12:35 · Score: 0
  
  Do you have any idea how fucking stupid that sounds?
  "Of course if you login to the wrong portal run by the same company you're going to pay higher fees!"
13. Re:Fees by Anonymous Coward · 2018-01-23 13:49 · Score: 0
  
  No retard. He's talking about the transaction fee. Whenever you swipe your card at the gas station, Walmart, or the McDonalds you frequent, they pay somewhere between 2.5-4% transaction fee to process your payment.
14. Re:Fees by Anonymous Coward · 2018-01-23 14:02 · Score: 0
  
  They do, only they call it "markup."
15. Re:Fees by Anonymous Coward · 2018-01-23 15:19 · Score: 0
  
  1.5-2% max here and the transaction goes through there and then at the price indicated.
16. Re:Fees by Baron_Yam · 2018-01-23 15:48 · Score: 1
  
  >Coinbase charges 1%
  Which means you're not using Bitcoin, you're using Coinbase, which defeats the whole purpose of Bitcoin in the first place and leaves you better off using a more traditional method of payment accepted in more locations and with better protections on transactions.
17. Re:Fees by mishehu · 2018-01-23 18:12 · Score: 1
  
  I agree, and even think this is nefarious because it hides that cost from the consumer. And that was no mistake on behalf of the credit card processors.
18. Re:Fees by Anonymous Coward · 2018-01-23 19:48 · Score: 0
  
  I assume we're talking about transactions between Bitcoin and USD or other currencies, not between two accounts denominated in Bitcoin.
19. Re:Fees by Baron_Yam · 2018-01-24 00:07 · Score: 1
  
  There's no difference for the purposes of my argument - any time you expect to move Bitcoin, you pay through the nose and you wait a long time (if the network has any popularity at the time of the transaction).
  If your transaction happens in a quick and low-cost manner... no Bitcoin was moved, which means none of the selling features of Bitcoin were utilized.
  To be really blunt - if you use Coinbase, you're using their private, trusted ledger.
20. Re:Fees by tlhIngan · 2018-01-24 06:33 · Score: 1
  
  Coinbase charges 1%. Credit cards charge 4%.
  And that's to just use their services. To actually transfer via Bitcoin incurs Bitcoin's transaction fee, which is variable and depends on how long you're willing to wait. This fee occurs every time you transfer anything via Bitcoin and in independent of the exchange or whatever.
  The fee goes straight to the miners as a reward for locking that transaction into the blockchain. Remember, miners do more than "make" bitcoin - in the early days they created actual bitcoin itself, but these days, with the reduction in production rate, miners make money locking the transaction into the blockchain.
  So the more you pay, the more the miners get, so naturally when looking at all the pending transactions, they will order them from pays the most to least and then hash those into the blockchain. Pay among the top and it's confirmed within minutes. Be completely cheap and it'll take weeks.
support staff by Anonymous Coward · 2018-01-23 10:51 · Score: 1

How about they stop having Scrooge McDuck money swims and hire some more support staff?
1. Re:support staff by Anonymous Coward · 2018-01-23 11:10 · Score: 1
  
  We tried, they kept demanding payment in something called 'fiat currency'? whatever that is.
2. Re:support staff by Anonymous Coward · 2018-01-23 11:22 · Score: 1, Funny
  
  They wanted paying in little Italian cars.
3. Re:support staff by VanessaE · 2018-01-23 21:23 · Score: 1
  
  So when someone spends their Fiat currency, do they get their change back in the form of tiny little tires and headlight bulbs?
4. Re:support staff by Anonymous Coward · 2018-01-24 01:19 · Score: 0
  
  Later they want to upgrade to Alfa Romeo.
Shovel manufacturer makes $2.7 million a day. by Anonymous Coward · 2018-01-23 10:57 · Score: 0

Also big revenues for bubble mixture companies.
Doesn't make sense by Anonymous Coward · 2018-01-23 10:59 · Score: 0

If a broker is turning over $1 billion a year and charging 0.25%-1% per transaction, they aren't earning $1 billion. Maybe I'm missing something, but their revenues should be between $2.5 million and $10 million. That's how a normal brokerage works, anyway.
1. Re:Doesn't make sense by darth+dickinson · 2018-01-23 11:04 · Score: 1, Insightful
  
  No their profits were $1B. FTA:
  "Recode reports that the company’s revenue exceeded $1 billion last year, most of it derived from the trading fees it levies. These vary from between 0.25% and 1%. and quickly add up: in the past 24 hours, 36,000 BTC were traded on Coinbase, accounting for more than 15% of the total market."
2. Re:Doesn't make sense by Anonymous Coward · 2018-01-23 11:24 · Score: 0
  
  Indeed, as you quote, "the company’s revenue exceeded $1 billion last year". Revenue. Not profit.
3. Re:Doesn't make sense by Anonymous Coward · 2018-01-23 11:25 · Score: 1
  
  Revenue is not profit.
4. Re:Doesn't make sense by GumphMaster · 2018-01-23 12:08 · Score: 1
  
  The broker company's turn over is the money they bring in from the transaction fees not the total value of the transactions the fees are levied on (that money is someone else's). That $1B revenue from transaction fees would represent something like $100-400B in transactions brokered. The day in which 36,000 BTC was traded represents a commission between 90 and 360BTC: about 990,000 to 3,960,000 USD at present values.
  
  --
  Patent litigation: A doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction... in which everyone seems willing to push the button
5. Re:Doesn't make sense by gravewax · 2018-01-23 14:08 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Revenue is not profit.
6. Re: Doesn't make sense by Anonymous Coward · 2018-01-23 18:07 · Score: 0
  
  Profit is not revenue. Profit is profit. Revenue is revenue.
7. Re: Doesn't make sense by Anonymous Coward · 2018-01-24 03:58 · Score: 0
  
  The article seems about right. I just checked on GDAX; there have been approximately $460 million worth of trades on GDAX in the last 24 hours, and that is only accounting for the USD pairs.
8. Re:Doesn't make sense by Anonymous Coward · 2018-01-24 04:22 · Score: 0
  
  Ah, ok. Thanks for clearing that up for me.
This is where your money goes by Anonymous Coward · 2018-01-23 11:08 · Score: 0

When you "buy" bitcoin, you hand these people your money aaaaaand it's gone.
1. Re: This is where your money goes by Anonymous Coward · 2018-01-23 17:45 · Score: 0
  
  Well that's strange. Wonder why they just gave me $44,000 for some Ether if my money is gone. Weird man. Super weird. Almost like you should shut the fuck up.
2. Re: This is where your money goes by Anonymous Coward · 2018-01-24 03:23 · Score: 0
  
  Sure they did, bro, sure they did.
This isn't about buying stuff... by Dzimas · 2018-01-23 11:14 · Score: 2

I gotta fuckin' pay to use my money!
You don't buy tulip bulbs to spend them, you acquire them as an investment. Think long term -- tulip bulbs are a rare commodity that will only increase in price.
1. Re:This isn't about buying stuff... by Anonymous Coward · 2018-01-23 11:27 · Score: 0
  
  The tulips jokes are getting a bit stale to be honest, don't we have something else to use whenever crypto news is posted?
2. Re: This isn't about buying stuff... by Anonymous Coward · 2018-01-23 11:29 · Score: 0
  
  Luddites and Apps are worn out too. Like your mom's vagina.
3. Re: This isn't about buying stuff... by Anonymous Coward · 2018-01-23 11:54 · Score: 0
  
  Your Mom jokes never go out of style!
4. Re: This isn't about buying stuff... by Anonymous Coward · 2018-01-23 12:10 · Score: 0
  
  Nope. Don't worry, my mom's vagina is worn out too. My ego wrecked that shit.
5. Re:This isn't about buying stuff... by Anonymous Coward · 2018-01-23 12:32 · Score: 0
  
  It's true, bitcoin has less intrinsic and realisable value than perishable flowers.
  Would you prefer more topical jokes comparing bitcoin to the dot-com, US housing or Asian financial crisis bubbles instead?
6. Re:This isn't about buying stuff... by Anonymous Coward · 2018-01-23 12:34 · Score: 1
  
  Can tulip bulbs allow you transfer value in a trustless manner between continents in minutes via a distributed decentralized immutable ledger run on a global network? (bitcoin) . Can tulips allow you to run contracts on those transactions without a middleman on a peer to peer distributed turing complete programmable computer network? (ethereum ) Can tulips allow you to transfer value anonymously without a middleman? (monero). Tulips are just flowers. Cryptocurrency is solves problems and isn't going anywhere.
7. Re: This isn't about buying stuff... by Anonymous Coward · 2018-01-23 12:40 · Score: 0
  
  But her vagina looked a lot like a tulip, before it got worn out
8. Re:This isn't about buying stuff... by Anonymous Coward · 2018-01-23 12:42 · Score: 0
  
  Gosh its warm around these bitcoins. Oh you said topical.
9. Re:This isn't about buying stuff... by theweatherelectric · 2018-01-23 12:48 · Score: 1
  
  Cryptocurrency is solves problems and isn't going anywhere.
  So.. cryptocurrency is going nowhere?
10. Re:This isn't about buying stuff... by Anonymous Coward · 2018-01-23 12:51 · Score: 0
  
  For this being "news for nerds" everyone sure sounds like an autistic child when bitcoin is brought up. The crypto currency market is huge. Bitcoin started it all but if you're going to trade against something use Ethereum. I'd call it the blue chip. It's very stable and has had steady growth.
11. Re:This isn't about buying stuff... by K.+S.+Kyosuke · 2018-01-23 14:30 · Score: 1
  
  don't we have something else to use whenever crypto news is posted?
  Do we? Why break with tradition?
  
  --
  Ezekiel 23:20
12. Re: This isn't about buying stuff... by Anonymous Coward · 2018-01-23 15:04 · Score: 0
  
  Now it looks like a busted couch
13. Re:This isn't about buying stuff... by Anonymous Coward · 2018-01-23 18:47 · Score: 0
  
  I never miss an excuse to post the Pets.com sock puppet.
Can't sell on coinbase by Anonymous Coward · 2018-01-23 11:17 · Score: 0

In Canada and Australia, you can buy with coinbase, but not sell with coinbase.
https://www.coinbase.com/global
It's not hard to make money when you don't need to pay anything out to certain people.
1. Re:Can't sell on coinbase by Anonymous Coward · 2018-01-23 12:09 · Score: 0
  
  In Canada and Australia, you can buy with coinbase, but not sell with coinbase.
  My understanding was that in Australia, from December last year, financial institutions are refusing to transfer money to crypto-exchanges. Has that ban now been lifted, or was coinbase, in particular, blessed?
  It's not hard to make money when you don't need to pay anything out to certain people.
  The revenue being discussed here is from transaction fees. And those people could still move their crypto-coins elsewhere.
2. Re:Can't sell on coinbase by Anonymous Coward · 2018-01-23 12:46 · Score: 0
  
  They refuse to transfer to improperly registered/accredited financial services, and to support anything that looks like scam investments. That's the majority of bitcoin operations in a nutshell.
  They still support transfers to BTC services who are properly registered in Australia and submit reporting (like proof of solvency) as a financial institution.
3. Re:Can't sell on coinbase by Anonymous Coward · 2018-01-23 13:09 · Score: 0
  
  They still support transfers to BTC services who are properly registered in Australia and submit reporting (like proof of solvency) as a financial institution.
  Thanks. And that, I take it, includes coinbase? But why no cash out, or is that just coinbase's own policy?
4. Re:Can't sell on coinbase by Anonymous Coward · 2018-01-23 15:32 · Score: 0
  
  That's the bit that fattens the margins.
5. Re:Can't sell on coinbase by Cimexus · 2018-01-23 19:30 · Score: 1
  
  I suspect that's simply because they don't support Australian interbank transfer/payments systems like BSB/account transfers and Bpay etc. Since they aren't Australian there's no reason they'd have this set up, which leaves only outgoing wire transfers which are expensive for them as a business.
  What I do is use GDAX to transfer the coins to be sold to an Australian crypto exchange. This is completely free using GDAX (they even eat the BTC transaction fee for you, which is kinda amazing given how high those fees have been recently). Australian exchanges will obviously then allow you to sell the coin(s) and do a normal Australian bank withdrawal. Money appears next business day in my account. Done it several times and it works well.
6. Re:Can't sell on coinbase by Anonymous Coward · 2018-01-23 20:16 · Score: 0
  
  coinbase are dodgy as all hell and hence they are unlikely to ever have regulatory approval here. basically coinbase should come with a huge warning for Australians of gamble at your own risk, you cannot withdraw your money but they will happily take it without warning you about this limitation.
7. Re:Can't sell on coinbase by gravewax · 2018-01-23 20:20 · Score: 1
  
  if they had even an ounce of honesty they would tell Australians that before they made purchases. As it is you only find that out when you try to sell. basically Coinbase is a giant bunch of conartists. I imagine they would have a massive amount of complaints with the financial ombudsman and ACCC by now, surprised really they haven't looked to prosecute them yet.
Hey guys, didn't you get the memo? by Anonymous Coward · 2018-01-23 11:19 · Score: 0

Bitcoin is dead! dead dead dead dead dead since 2014, it's dead dead dead dead dead dead, the bubble's burst it's dead dead dead dead dead dead dead! Oh did I mention it's dead?
1. Re:Hey guys, didn't you get the memo? by Anonymous Coward · 2018-01-23 11:45 · Score: 0
  
  Bitcoin will never die completely, it's too useful as a vehicle to fleece speculators. It will, however, never become a currency.
2. Re:Hey guys, didn't you get the memo? by war4peace · 2018-01-23 11:57 · Score: 1
  
  You should've just mentioned it's dead.
  
  --
  ...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
3. Re:Hey guys, didn't you get the memo? by supremebob · 2018-01-23 11:59 · Score: 1
  
  There are a whole new generation of "altcoins" coming out every day to fleece new investors, though. Why go back to Bitcoin, which already has hundreds of (Google searchable) horror stories of people losing everything, and will likely soon have many more?
Tether makes that a week by Anonymous Coward · 2018-01-23 11:24 · Score: 0

Hah, that is nothing. Why Tether prints up to a billion in a single week. As you know, it is a good thing it so easy to buy a billion dollars for a random Taiwanese crypto company that has been shut out of the US banking system. Coinbase ain't got shit on that...
Something about shovels... by Anonymous Coward · 2018-01-23 11:29 · Score: 0

...and gold rushes.
That's not all by Anonymous Coward · 2018-01-23 11:41 · Score: 0

They're also installing malware that got through my antivirus, antimal, and Windows Defender and using my computer to mine for them.
To be fair, they didn't personally do this, some scumbag did. But Coinbase makes this practice as easy as possible and is happy to profit from it.
Anyone That's Read r/bitcoin by Anonymous Coward · 2018-01-23 11:49 · Score: 1

Knows his they make so much money. They simply accidentally lose your money wire or freeze your account. Sure they will pay out for little sums around $1-5k but somehow the $20k + accounts/wires magically get lost.
1. Re: Anyone That's Read r/bitcoin by Anonymous Coward · 2018-01-23 17:49 · Score: 1
  
  No, they don't and you're a fool if you think so. I know many, many people who have withdrawn fiat from them, in large amounts, with zero problems. Go hide under your bridge again.
2. Re:Anyone That's Read r/bitcoin by Cimexus · 2018-01-23 19:31 · Score: 1
  
  They don't get lost ... they just take a reaaaallly long time to process and be credited to the account. No doubt they are sitting on the money in the meantime earning interest, of course. Seriously though why does it take over 2 weeks for a standard ACH transfer to show up?
Minimum Fees = $1 by Anonymous Coward · 2018-01-23 12:05 · Score: 1

They always charge me at least 1 USD whenever I buy or sell some crypto currency and almost all of my transactions are under $80. I've profited about $200 off $600 I put in in December by constantly selling high and buying low. They've made at least $40 off me.
Can anyone recommend someone else? I really hate paying a $1 fee to buy/sell $5 even though it still makes me money.
1. Re:Minimum Fees = $1 by Anonymous Coward · 2018-01-23 23:52 · Score: 0
  
  Quit fukcing playing around. Smallest amount i move is $500 largest is $50,000 in coins. No trouble mining or exchanging or selling for USD $. Coin Base has a $95 milion investment from USAA......they pay and are one of the few places. that will send you USD for crypto.
  You send $80. Yeah well gues what if you do that on any stock exchange expect fees to eat your ass also. You dont play wit pennies in a dollar market. Seriously....$80 is a rounding fucking error.
2. Re: Minimum Fees = $1 by Anonymous Coward · 2018-01-24 04:14 · Score: 0
  
  Agreed, hell by comparison coinbase/gdax is cheap. I left trading with TDameritrade because it's dirt cheap to play on GDAX.
3. Re:Minimum Fees = $1 by Anonymous Coward · 2018-01-24 15:56 · Score: 0
  
  Not everyone is rich.
Re:Hey guys, did you get out above 15K? by Anonymous Coward · 2018-01-23 12:15 · Score: 0

Bitcoin is dead ... since 2014 ... the bubble's burst it's dead
Nope, the bubble popped on 2017-12-17. And it's not dead yet ... it's dying slowly.
Lion's share? by Anonymous Coward · 2018-01-23 12:45 · Score: 0

GDAX is the 8th largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume, 9th if you count exchange fee-free BitMEX. They process 2.3% of crypto-asset volume.
Binance by Anonymous Coward · 2018-01-23 12:47 · Score: 0

Binance is pretty interesting. Plenty of other currencies you can make quick trades with and the charting tools are useful. Based in China just in case you're wondering.
Let's see... by DontBeAMoran · 2018-01-23 13:01 · Score: 1

2.7 million U.S. dollars equals 409 million Dogecoins.
That's a lot!

--
#DeleteFacebook
Re: Hey guys, did you get out above 15K? by FuzzyDaddy2 · 2018-01-23 13:46 · Score: 1

Netcraft confirms it
Re: Hey guys, did you get out above 15K? by Anonymous Coward · 2018-01-23 14:45 · Score: 0

Coindesk confirms it
FTFY
And BTW, coindesk uses linux, not BSD ... for what it's worth.
Re:Hey guys, did you get out above 15K? by Anonymous Coward · 2018-01-23 15:39 · Score: 0

This cryptocurrency is deceased, it is no more.
As any poker player knows by SlaveToTheGrind · 2018-01-23 15:40 · Score: 1

You can't beat the rake.
Re:Hey guys, did you get out above 15K? by Anonymous Coward · 2018-01-23 15:54 · Score: 0

This cryptocurrency is deceased, it is no more.
No it isn't, it's just pining for the fjords. This is a Great Buying Opportunity(tm)
Golly! Where can I invest? by Anonymous Coward · 2018-01-23 17:25 · Score: 0

Surely some kind moderator with no financial interest can tell me where to send all my monies to get in on this bitwealth miracle.. right?
Fucking bitwhores. Rot in hell Anon.
1. Re: Golly! Where can I invest? by Anonymous Coward · 2018-01-24 04:11 · Score: 0
  
  Actually coinbase has effectively told investors to take a hike. They don't need or want vc funding. Seems like that ship set sail awhile ago.
  Regrettably...
Standardized protocol by DrYak · 2018-01-23 21:51 · Score: 1

Yes, but, because the protocol is standardized,
*YOU* get to chose which payment processor company you're paying fees to (you could be using Coinbase, or Bitpay, etc.)
(Unlike if you choose to use PayPal as a system to send-money-over-internet. Then you can only use Pay Pal Inc. as the sole company that provides the service)
Or use an exchange market (Kraken, Bitstamp, etc.)
Or instead of a company you could exchange money-to-bitcoin your self. Either using a platform like localbitcoin or even redit/craiglist/irc to setup the cash/bitcoin hand-over.
Or you could mostly organise around your own tools (run your own wallet software, and be your own BTC bank, but then you're very much exposed to the BTC exchange rate volatility).
etc.
Open standard, distributed trust, means a lot of solution to the problems, instead of a single centralized go-to company.
Which is entirely the purpose of bitcoin protocole to begin with.
(And the same reflections applies to bank-to-bank money transfer standards like SEPA. No central gateway company, you get to choose which ever bank you want to work with as long as it supports SEPA payment).

--
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
Trading Places by damonlab · 2018-01-24 03:46 · Score: 1

This reminds me of a quote from the movie Trading Places. Randolph Duke: "The good part, William, is that, no matter whether our clients make money or lose money, Duke & Duke get the commissions."