Rabby vs Coinbase Wallet (formerly Base app)

First, the name. Coinbase renamed Coinbase Wallet as the "Base app" in July 2025, pitching it as a social "everything app". On 10 September 2026 Coinbase announced it was reversing that and renaming it Coinbase Wallet again, now as a multichain trading app (The Block; Decrypt). If you saw "Base app" in older guides, it is the same self-custodial wallet. It is separate from a Coinbase exchange account. Facts were checked on 25 October 2026.

At a glance

Coinbase Wallet details are from Coinbase's help centre and CryptoSlate's review (updated 24 October 2026).

Fees

Coinbase's help centre says the wallet charges "a fee of up to 1% on swaps", and that aggregators may add their own fee. When it announced the September 2026 rebrand, Coinbase declined to share its fee structure for the new trading features (The Block). Coinbase does offer gasless swaps on some networks, where the network fee is taken from the token you swap.

Rabby charges 0.25%, and 0% on stablecoin-to-stablecoin swaps, wrapping and native-to-liquid-staking swaps (Rabby source code, October 2026). On a $1,000 swap that can mean $2.50 in Rabby against up to $10 in Coinbase Wallet. For gas, Rabby's Gas Account lets you pay gas on supported chains from a USDC or USDT balance. See Rabby swap fees.

Onboarding and recovery

This is where Coinbase Wallet is strongest. You can create a smart wallet secured by a passkey (your phone's face or fingerprint unlock), or an email or social-login wallet, without writing down 12 words. That removes the biggest beginner mistake, losing the seed phrase, and makes buying crypto from a Coinbase account straightforward.

The trade-offs: passkey smart wallets work only on supported EVM networks, so Bitcoin and Solana need an email or recovery-phrase wallet, and recovery depends on your passkey or login provider.

Which is better for a beginner depends on what you fear more. If you worry about losing a piece of paper, a passkey wallet removes that risk. If you worry about depending on a phone, a cloud account or a login provider, a seed phrase you control is simpler. Either way, write down what you need to recover the wallet before you deposit anything, and test recovery with a small amount.

Rabby is a classic self-custodial wallet: a seed phrase or private key encrypted on your device, with optional encrypted cloud backup on mobile. It is less forgiving for beginners but has no dependency on any login provider. Follow our seed phrase backup guide if you choose it.

Safety

Both preview transactions and block known scam sites. Rabby's pre-sign checks go deeper on EVM DeFi: decoded approvals and permits, simulated balance changes and a security engine whose rules you can view. Rabby's code is open source, with regular audits by SlowMist and Least Authority. Coinbase's smart-wallet contracts were audited by Cantina, Certora and Code4rena (2023 to 2024), but the app itself is closed source.

Rabby's main incident was the October 2022 Swap contract exploit; keys were not affected. See Rabby security history. Coinbase's wallet SDK flaw in February 2025 was fixed in version 4.3.0. The May 2025 incident involved bribed Coinbase support staff leaking exchange customer data; Coinbase said private keys and funds were not exposed, but leaked data has fuelled scam calls ever since. Neither Coinbase nor Rabby will contact you first or ask for a seed phrase.

Features

• Trading: Coinbase Wallet now centres on trading: Hyperliquid perps, prediction markets, tokenized stocks and long-tail tokens, some of them restricted by region. Rabby also has Hyperliquid perps and prediction markets.
• DeFi tools: Rabby has automatic chain switching, an approvals manager, custom networks and Safe multisig. Coinbase Wallet dropped custom networks.
• Hardware: Coinbase Wallet supports Ledger through its extension; Rabby supports many more devices. See Rabby hardware wallets.
• Web: Coinbase Wallet has a web app. Rabby has no web wallet, and its old desktop app stopped working after 31 December 2025.

Platforms and getting started

Coinbase Wallet runs on iOS and Android, as a web app and as a browser extension; CryptoSlate (October 2026) found no sign that the extension is being discontinued. Some trading features are limited by region. Rabby runs as a Chromium browser extension and on iOS and Android. Rabby needs no account, email or login: you create or import a wallet and start.

If you use both, be careful in your browser: both inject an Ethereum provider, and a dapp may open the wrong one. Rabby has a default-wallet setting for this; see Rabby not showing in a dapp. To move funds from a Coinbase passkey wallet to Rabby, send them to your Rabby address on the same network, and check the network in both apps before you confirm.

Choose Rabby if… / Choose Coinbase Wallet if…

Choose Rabby if

• You use DeFi across many EVM chains or need custom networks.
• You want lower swap fees.
• You want open-source code and detailed pre-sign checks.
• You use a hardware wallet other than Ledger.

Choose Coinbase Wallet if

• You are new to crypto and prefer passkey or email sign-in over a seed phrase.
• You already use a Coinbase account and want easy transfers.
• You want Bitcoin and Solana alongside Base and Ethereum in one trading app.

Frequently asked questions