I've signed up and I've already bought coins with Circle and I fail to see how it is any better than Coinbase.

It seems to be identical to Coinbase, in fact. I know they claim they aren't an exchange but that is marketing.

With Coinbase I can buy up to $1,000 in bitcoins a week. I never use it that way though. What is better is that I can buy up to $50,000 of Bitcoin a day! This is a rolling limit that begins replenish over 24 hours. Those bitcoins don't arrive for a few business days but that rarely matters. I can buy with linked bank accounts, but it will also use a backup credit card for the instant purchase. I can also sell up to $50,000 in bitcoins a day, although the money takes a couple of days to arrive. Transfers of bitcoins in to Coinbase take 6 confirmations. I pay 1% to buy and sell with Coinbase.


Now let's look at Circle. I can buy with a credit card but Circle (or, more fairly, my credit card) charges 3%. Ouch. Why would I ever want to do that? I can buy with a linked bank account but there is a WEEKLY limit of $2,500 for "deposits" (buys) and $5,000 weekly limit for "withdrawals" (sells). Coinbase has a limit 70 times higher for sells and 140 times higher for buys! Now, I expect if I use Circle a lot they will raise that limit, but they have an awfully long way to go till they reach Coinbase's limit. Since my bank accounts haven't been linked yet, I have yet to see how long a deposit (buy) and withdrawal (sell) takes. I'm guessing the withdrawal will take the same amount of time as Coinbase as an ACH transfer can only go so fast. They may credit the "deposit" sooner than the ACH transfer will take, but I seriously doubt it.

Finally, the biggest downside with Circle is that you can't ever withdraw bitcoins from it (although you can deposit bitcoins into it). This essentially means that Circle is always going to "hold" your bitcoins which means you will have to trust them. Yes, I know I've heard they are insured but I do not see the FDIC logo anywhere on their site, and that is the only insurance that means anything. Plenty of other fraudulent companies have said "trust us" and then they either they ran away with the money or the bitcoins were mysteriously "stolen". Why should I trust Circle, then? With Coinbase I can buy coins and then immediately send them to my wallet, only sending them back to Coinbase when I want to sell. I prefer that much more.