99.9% of people would disagree with you that the balance they see in their Wells Fargo account is 'not actually USD'. In a way Coinbase BTC is closer to BTC tha

99.9% of people would disagree with you that the balance they see in their Wells Fargo account is 'not actually USD'. In a way Coinbase BTC is closer to BTC than Wells Fargo USD is to USD because Coinbase doesn't operate a fractional reserve. > I just can't see a scenario where buying bitcoin with USD on Coinbase and then using a debit card to spend it in USD is better than spending USD in the first place. Sure, that would be silly. But imagine you're a rich Chinese kid in California whose parents own a sweatshop in Shenzhen. To easily get around capital controls they buy BTC in China and send it to your Coinbase account. You pay for your day-to-day USD expenses on this card. Use your imagination.