Coinbase Country Limits: Where You Can and Can't Use Coinbase in 2025

When you try to sign up for Coinbase, a major cryptocurrency exchange that lets users buy, sell, and store digital assets. Also known as Coinbase Global, it is one of the most trusted platforms for beginners and casual traders. But here’s the catch: Coinbase country limits mean you can’t just sign up from anywhere. Even if you have a credit card and internet access, your location might block you entirely—or limit what you can do. Some countries ban crypto exchanges outright. Others let you trade but not withdraw. A few let you hold crypto but not buy it with local currency. It’s not random. It’s rules.

These restrictions aren’t just about Coinbase being picky. They’re shaped by financial regulation, government oversight of money movement, digital assets, and banking, crypto taxation, how countries treat profits from digital assets as income or capital gains, and OFAC sanctions, U.S. government blocks on transactions with certain nations or entities. For example, if you’re in Brazil, you can use Coinbase but face strict reporting rules. In China, you can’t use it at all—no sign-up, no trading, no deposits. Nigeria? You can trade, but not with local bank transfers. Iran? Blocked. Russia? Limited. North Korea? Entirely off-limits due to sanctions. These aren’t just footnotes. They’re deal-breakers.

What you can do on Coinbase changes depending on where you live. In the U.S., you get full access: spot trading, staking, debit cards, even crypto loans. In the EU, you get most features but no staking on all coins due to MiCA rules. In Canada, you can trade but not earn interest on certain tokens. In countries like Venezuela or Argentina, people use Coinbase to protect savings from inflation—but they can’t link local banks, so they rely on peer-to-peer deposits. The platform doesn’t make these rules. Governments do. And Coinbase follows them to stay legal. That’s why you see gaps: no fiat on-ramps in some places, no altcoins in others, no account creation at all in a handful of nations.

Knowing your country’s rules isn’t just about avoiding a blocked signup. It’s about protecting your money. If you try to force access using a VPN, you risk account suspension—or worse, losing funds. Some users get locked out permanently. Others get flagged for suspicious activity. And if your country bans crypto exchanges, using Coinbase could put you in legal gray zones—even if you’re just holding Bitcoin. This collection of posts dives into the real-world impact of these limits: from Brazil’s $10,000 forex cap to China’s no-protection stance on holdings, from Mexico’s strict business rules to Portugal’s tax-free edge. You’ll find what’s allowed, what’s risky, and what’s outright banned. No fluff. No guesses. Just what actually works where you are—or where you’re trying to be.