Tag: crypto exchanges

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Crypto Daily Topic Cryptocurrencies

Can WazirX (WRX) be the Queen of Exchanges?

While it may appear as though crypto has received a lot of support and adoption, the reality is that penetration is yet to even go beyond 1%. The reasons for this are the massive obstacles standing between Fiat and crypto, such as high fees, complex procedures, regulatory hurdles, etc. Also, existing on-ramp solutions grapple with high deposit and withdrawal fees, delays, and users not truly owning their own money. 

While it may appear as though crypto has received a lot of support and adoption, the reality is that penetration is yet to even go beyond 1%. The reasons for this are the massive obstacles standing between Fiat and crypto, such as high fees, complex procedures, regulatory hurdles, etc. Also, existing on-ramp solutions grapple with high deposit and withdrawal fees, delays, and users not truly owning their own money. 

While it may appear as though crypto has received a lot of support and adoption, the reality is that penetration is yet to even go beyond 1%. The reasons for this are the massive obstacles standing between Fiat and crypto, such as high fees, complex procedures, regulatory hurdles, etc. Also, existing on-ramp solutions grapple with high deposit and withdrawal fees, delays, and users not truly owning their own money. 

WazirX is a decentralized crypto exchange that wants to solve these and more problems to provide users with the means to adopt cryptocurrency. Based in India and acquired by Binance, the platform’s name, Wazir, is another name for the “queen” in chess. The queen piece can not only play any move; it’s also the strongest. WazirX wants to live up to these characteristics. 

What’s WazirX? 

Launched in 2018, WazirX is a crypto exchange with advanced buy, sell, and trade functionalities. It features a live and open order book on which users can trade over 80 crypto assets, including Bitcoin, Litecoin, BNB, Dash, and more. 

On WazirX, you can also deposit or withdraw crypto and cash in or cash out stablecoins such as USDT in a fast, secure, and peer-to-peer manner. WazirX’s goal is to bridge the chasm between Fiat and crypto. 

WRX’s native token is the backbone of the ecosystem and has several use cases, including trading fee discounts, participation rewards, payment for margin fees, and more. WazirX supports five platforms at the time of writing: Web, Android, iOS, Windows, and Mac.

History of WazirX

The WazirX team launched the platform to respond to the Indian government’s banning of crypto businesses, exchanges, and shops. Banks had also been banned from engaging in any crypto-related activities. 

Today, the platform is, first and foremost, the go-to platform for Indian users to trade in crypto – in an uncensorable manner. But that’s not where the team is stopping. They intend to take the WazirX proposition to more developing and underdeveloped countries for Fiat on-ramp solutions. 

Binance acquired WazirX in November 2019. However, it continues to operate independently with a focus on peer-to-peer crypto trading. The WazirX team shares a vision with Binance, and that’s to increase the freedom of money around the world and improve people’s lives. 

How Does WazirX Realize Security? 

The WazirX team ensures security for the network through the following actions: 

  • Majority of funds kept in cold storage
  • A muti-sig wallet system
  • Two-factor authentication system for transactions
  • Strong KYC/AML procedures
  • Regular security audits

WRX Value 

WRX token holders will receive perks, including but not limited to discounts in payment of fees. The discount structure is as follows: 

  • 1st year: 50% trading fee discount
  • 2nd year: 25% trading fee discount
  • 3rd year: 12.5% trading fee discount
  • 4th year: 6.25% trading fee discount

Users will also earn participation rewards for performing P2P trades. Also, token holders will have voting power to determine issues such as future listings, update releases, etc. 

WazirX will burn 10% off WRX tokens every quarter based on the trading volume. In the end, about 100 million tokens will be burned – in a bid to prevent the token from overflooding the market. 

Who’s on the WazirX Team?

WazirX is the brainchild of a core team of members. We have founder and CEO Nischal Shetty, who is also the founder of Crowdfire and is an awardee of Forbes 30 under 30. 

Co-founder and CTO is also a co-founder of Crowdfire Sameer Mhatre is a full-stack developer and designer. He describes himself as “a huge Java and JS fan.” 

Co-founder and COO Siddharth Menon also co-founded Crowdfire. He’s also the founder of 3Crumbs, one of the early mobile startups in India. 

Community Growth Strategies of WazirX 

The WazirX team intends to implement several community growth strategies in a bid to expand the growth of the network. Current strategies include: 

  • Innovative participation reward programs, e.g., the WRX Trade Mining program
  • Publish media content including guest posts and features
  • Conduct AMAs and both virtual and physical conferences
  • Conduct interviews with influencers
  • Release progress updates every month
  • Headline events and partner with industry influencers

Future strategies include: 

  • Create dedicated Telegram channels for various countries
  • Headline and participate in more events such as meetups and conferences to grow further its offline presence
  • Continue to innovate with rewards programs
  • Collaborate with various wallets and decentralized finance apps to explore Fiat gateway solutions

WRX: Token Supply Distribution 

The ERX token was distributed in the following manner: 

  • Launchpad sale tokens: 10%
  • Private sale tokens: 5%
  • Foundation tokens: 30%
  • Product and marketing tokens: 20%
  • Partnership and ecosystem tokens: 20%
  • WRX Airdrop tokens: 11.10 percent
  • WRX trade mining tokens: 3.90%

How’s the WazirX Token Doing in the Market? 

As of October 31, 2020, WRX traded at $0.088615 with a market cap of $20,718,698 that placed it at #323 in the market. The token had a 24-hour volume of $8,866,743 and a circulating and total supply of 233,817,289 and 995,833,334. WRX has an all-time high of $0.229263 (Mar 07, 2020) and an all-time low of $0.055241 (Mar 13, 2020). 

Where to Buy WRX

You’ll find WRX listed as a market pair of USDT, BTC, BUSD, BNB, TRX, and more in several exchanges. They include but are not limited to WazirX, Binance, BinanceDEX, Bilaxy, Sistemkoin, BiKi, Poloniex, FTX, and Bitsonic. 

Final Thoughts

WazirX is relatively young, but it has done well. With its plan to spread its wings to more countries, the project is poised for more success and could very well compete with more established exchanges like Huobi, Coinbase, etc. Here’s to hoping it succeeds in both expanding and democratizing money for populations. 

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Crypto Videos

BitMEX Lost Over 45k Bitcoin – Is BitMEX Going Down?

https://youtu.be/L0QuYTGMJIg

https://youtu.be/L0QuYTGMJIg

 

BitMEX Lost Over 45k Bitcoin Since US Government Charges; Other Exchanges Are Taking Over

More than 45,000 Bitcoin has been withdrawn so far from the crypto trading platform BitMEX since the US government levied charges against the exchange as well as its leadership. October 1 brought two crushing blows to BitMEX. First, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Department of Justice brought charges against the exchange and its practices. Shortly thereafter, its founders (including the CEO Arthur Hayes) were indicted by the US government. As expected, the market reacted to the breaking news with a sharp decline across many cryptocurrencies in the sector.

This isn’t even the first time in recent months that the trading platform giant has contributed to a downward turn in crypto sector prices. The exchange first began losing its users’ trust following a blackout on Black Thursday, which, for a short period, prevented users from trading or retrieving their own assets. While users slowly moved away from the platform and withdrew over 100,000 Bitcoin in the six months between that event and these most recent charges, the exodus that happened after October 1 appears to be unprecedented in scale.

The data coming from Crystal Blockchain shows that, in less than 48 hours, the net outflows from the BitMEX platform have exceeded 45,000 Bitcoin, by no means a small amount. However, traders are traders, and the Bitcoin withdrawn from BitMEX didn’t just vanish, but simply moved platforms. Gemini and Binance appear to be the most prominent beneficiaries of these outflows, closely trailed by OKEx and Huobi. More than 20,000 BTC has been transferred out of the BitMEX platform and into the latter four exchanges.

It is yet unclear whether BitMEX will just disappear into the abyss of time like many failed crypto exchanges before it, or if the company will manage to find a way to comply with the government body and survive to trade another day and. Lance Morginn, CEO of Blockchain Intelligence Group and an ex-supervisory special agent at the Department of Homeland Security, said that the most likely outcome would be that BitMEX will receive monetary penalties. On top of that, BitMEX will most likely have to make a promise on the part of its executives that it will not engage in unlawful activities in the future. However, he thinks that BitMEX is too big to fall at the moment and that it is less likely that the company will just vanish.

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Crypto Guides

What Should You Know About Instant Crypto Exchanges?

Introduction Whether we need to buy, sell, or trade crypto, exchanges are the most convenient way to do so. It provides us with several functions that make the work easy. But when we need the task to be done on an immediate basis, we can opt for instant crypto exchanges. With these options, we don’t […]

Introduction Whether we need to buy, sell, or trade crypto, exchanges are the most convenient way to do so. It provides us with several functions that make the work easy. But when we need the task to be done on an immediate basis, we can opt for instant crypto exchanges. With these options, we don’t […]

Introduction

Whether we need to buy, sell, or trade crypto, exchanges are the most convenient way to do so. It provides us with several functions that make the work easy. But when we need the task to be done on an immediate basis, we can opt for instant crypto exchanges. With these options, we don’t have to go through the lengthy procedure of buying, selling, or trading crypto. Here are a few benefits that can be obtained from instant crypto exchanges over the traditional methods.

They Are Not-Custodial

In the traditional exchanges, our money will be held on the servers of the exchange. That means the exchange had our money’s custody for a while. This not only extends the transaction time but also put our money at risk. The year 2019 saw twelve crypto exchange hacks, which accounted for over $290 million of funds.

However, there are no such issues with the instant crypto exchanges. As soon as they receive the funds, these instant exchanges deposit the conversion in your wallet immediately. That means you don’t lose custody over your cryptocurrency, and there is no exchange theft associated with it.

They Are Quick

The custodial crypto exchanges require you weeks to get the account approved. By that time, you can’t buy, sell, or trade crypto. But you can do the work fast with the instant option. The name itself indicates that these are “instant” crypto exchanges. So you won’t have to waste much time in getting your currency exchanged. You will have to put only 5 to 60 minutes for each transaction to complete.

Price Aggregation

When you go for the traditional crypto exchanges, you will have to deal with an extensive interface. That is because the entire order book depth and price are shown to make the trade. However, it only includes orders from that particular exchange, and you will have to work accordingly. On the other hand, instant crypto exchanges aggregate multiple exchanges’ price. So you get access to deeper liquidity, and the risk of slippage lowers down.

Fixed/Floating Prices

While making a trade in the conventional exchange, you encounter a specific limit. The system executes a trade only when the prices are at or better than the specified limit. The feature was definitely beneficial, but the instant crypto exchanges have something better to offer. The two options available are:

Floating

When making a transaction, the floating rates get executed at the most excellent possible price. It can be either a little lower or higher than the quoted price.

Fixed

This fixes a specific rate for making the trade. That means, when that price is reached, the system automatically executes the transaction.

Ease Of Use

Last but not least, instant crypto exchanges are effortless to use. If you have already used traditional exchanges, you must be aware of their verification and registration formalities that you need to go through. When it comes to instant crypto exchanges, there are no such issues. You will get registered quickly with an email, and sometimes you can trade without any account or registration.

Examples of Instant Crypto Exchanges

As of today, there are only a few credible and reliable Instant Crypto Exchanges that we can rely on. One of the pioneers in this space would be a well-known exchange called Changelly. With this instant crypto exchange, we get to buy or exchange more than 150 cryptocurrencies. Some of the other popular instant exchanges include CoinSwitch, ChangeNow, FixedFloat, etc. All of these are instant and reliable, so you can confidently make your crypto trades with them.

Bottom line

Though it is quite clear that there are several benefits of opting for instant crypto exchanges, you still need to think twice before using them. This is because of their less sophisticated wallets and heftier exchange fees. You can look up to them and make your mind about whether you want to try them or not.

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Crypto Daily Topic Crypto Guides

Is Crypto Money Laundering A Real Problem?

What is Money Laundering?

What is Money Laundering?

What is Money Laundering?

Money Laundering is the legitimization of money earned through illegal means. Generally, it is the separation of money obtained through illegal activities and mixed with the money made from legal sources like small businesses that accepts cash as the primary mode of payment. The legitimized money is again funneled to the criminal enterprises to fund illegal activities.

Different Ways of Money laundering

Money laundering is prevailing for many decades in our financial history. Governments have been continuously upgrading the technology to avoid the money laundering cases, especially to reduce the funding of illegal activities. Cash still occupies the first place when it comes to laundering the money. Because it is difficult to trace the money that is transacted in cash. Hence selling/buying drugs, trafficking, and theft are mostly dealt with cash.

Gold is another popular form of laundering money. Other than these, we have large banks that don’t question with the source of the wealth when the cash is deposited in their vaults, casinos, tax havens, etc. But ever since the revolution of Cryptocurrency has begun, this asset is paving new ways for money laundering. Let’s discuss more about this below.

Is Money Laundering Using Cryptos A Real Problem? 

There are significant concerns across most of the governments with regard to money laundering using cryptocurrencies. But most of them are not true when it comes to reality. It is estimated that since 2009 approximately $2.5 billion worth of Bitcoins are laundered, whereas ~ $100-$300 billion dollars are being laundered every year in different ways.

Hence, if we compare the stats, the amount of money laundered using Cryptocurrency is very sparse. Moreover, it is not advisable to launder money using Cryptocurrency as all the crypto networks are permissionless and transparent for literally anyone to check. It is easy to put together the Bitcoin transactions as the transactions are only pseudo-anonymous.

How are cryptocurrencies used to launder money?

These are some of the ways how Cryptocurrency is used for money laundering:

₿ While most of the cryptocurrencies are regulated there are some exchanges that aren’t. This means they don’t perform KYC procedures and none of the details of their customers is collected while they perform crypto transactions. This makes it challenging to match the transactions made by their customers to their id’s. When several such transactions are made using unregulated crypto exchanges, a degree of privacy is added which may eventually result in using that money for illegal activities.

₿ Exchanging the Cryptocurrency with different altcoins, thus making it difficult to know the origins of the actual cryptos. This can also quickly be done by participating in an ICO.

₿ Using Bitcoin ATM’s, we can deposit fiat cash and take Cryptocurrency at any place where a crypto ATM is available.

₿ As the cryptocurrency market is too volatile, it is easy to show that the illicit income is a result of some profitable venture or some other currency appreciation.

₿ With ever-increasing online payments using Cryptocurrency, we can easily create an online company which accepts Bitcoin and convert black money into clean Bitcoin.

How are the governments controlling the crypto money laundering?

Governments are taking various measures by developing multiple tools to link the transactions to the ids of the users using KYC details. Anti-laundering laws are amended to include cryptocurrencies. The US, Canadian, and European governments have made changes to the rules already. Some governments are, in turn, taking measures by legalizing cryptos so that the transactions would be made through regulated exchanges instead of fraudulent ones.

Finally, it can be said that, since the usage of digital cash is going to be inevitable, all measures are being taken to curb the negativities that we see in today’s world with fiat cash. If you have any questions, shoot them in the comments below. Cheers!

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Crypto Videos

Bittrex Exchange In Depth Review Part 2

https://youtu.be/tS341fqp2Mg

https://youtu.be/tS341fqp2Mg

 

Bittrex exchange in-depth review – part 2/2

This part of the Bittrex exchange in-depth review will explain how the platform operates, the fees as well as the overall security of the platform.

Bittrex Chart view


Different exchanges often have their proprietary charts. However, all the user interfaces usually have a few things in common: they all show the order book, the price chart of the chosen asset as well as the order history. They also have buy and sell boxes. Before choosing an exchange, try to look at the user interface and determine if it will suit you.

Bittrex Fees

Bittrex has two types of fees! Trading fees and Withdrawal fees.

Trading fees
Bittrex is one of the exchanges that doesn’t charge different fees for market takers and makers. This type of fee structure is usually called “flat fees.” Bittrex offers its customer base a flat trading fee of 0.25%. Investors who prefer to take the orders from the market rather than set the orders themselves might prefer this fee model. The fees, however, do scale with trading size. The fees are divided between market taker fees and maker fees once the trading volume exceeds $200,000.

Bittrex’s flat fees the same as the majority of the industry that uses flat fees. However, more and more exchanges are now shifting to lower trading fees, ranging between 0.10%-0.15%. It is quite reasonable to believe that the 0.10% fee will be the new industry average.

Withdrawal fees

While many exchanges have competitive trading fees, they often have extremely high withdrawal fees to compensate. Bittrex does not do that. This exchange’s withdrawal fee is set at 0.0005 BTC when withdrawing BTC. This is either in line with or lower than the global industry average.

Deposit Methods

Bittrex, along with Poloniex, has been criticized for not providing fiat currency support to its customers. If you have money in a bank account and would like to start trading crypto, Bittrex is not a suitable exchange. However, this rule is not quite as strict and has an exception. If you want to deposit a sum of over $100,000, you could do that on Bittrex. The exchange decided to allow corporate clients to deposit fiat currency on 31 May 2018. When the news of partnering with the New York Signature Bank news broke out, Bittrex also announced that they would soon enable fiat currency deposits for all traders as well.

Bittrex Security

 

As exchanges store a massive amount of valuable personal info as well as assets, they need to have stellar security. The info they store can be anything, including names and addresses, government ID details, tax ID numbers, etc.
Bittrex’s hit a security score of B when performing a security test at Observatory by Mozilla. This is considered a very strong security score. When crypto exchanges go, it is far above average.

Bittrex also seems to be very committed to providing strong security to its customer base. They are stating that they “incorporate multiple layers of protection, using the most reliable and effective security technologies available.”
The exchange has a 99.95% uptime rate, which is quite an amazing proof of the trading engine reliability.

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Crypto Exchanges

Coinbase: Is It Safe To Buy and Store Cryptocurrencies On This Exchange?

Coinbase, the American based crypto exchange, describes itself as the “easiest place to buy, sell, and manage your cryptocurrency portfolio.” While relying on some of its string features like insurance backed deposits, strong regulation by the SEC, and secure storage that has shielded it from hackers since establishment, Coinbase refers to itself as “the most trusted cryptocurrency platform.”

Coinbase, the American based crypto exchange, describes itself as the “easiest place to buy, sell, and manage your cryptocurrency portfolio.” While relying on some of its string features like insurance backed deposits, strong regulation by the SEC, and secure storage that has shielded it from hackers since establishment, Coinbase refers to itself as “the most trusted cryptocurrency platform.”

Coinbase, the American based crypto exchange, describes itself as the “easiest place to buy, sell, and manage your cryptocurrency portfolio.” While relying on some of its string features like insurance backed deposits, strong regulation by the SEC, and secure storage that has shielded it from hackers since establishment, Coinbase refers to itself as “the most trusted cryptocurrency platform.”

But how accurate are these claims, and is it really safe to buy and store your cryptocurrencies on the Coinbase exchange and wallet? We answer this and more questions about this exchange in this comprehensive Coinbase review. Here, we will try to bring to light everything you need to know about this major crypto exchange, its Coinbase wallet, and the security of its platform and mobile apps.

We start by gaining a little background information about the company

What is Coinbase?

Coinbase is a San Francisco based crypto exchange and one of the oldest – having started in 2012. Today, Coinbase is available in 100+ countries across the world and boasts of one of the broadest customer base. It is a hybrid exchange that supports both crypto-to-crypto as well as fiat to crypto transactions.

It also comes off as one of the most regulated crypto exchanges and one of the handful that’s licensed to operate in the United States. For the longest time, Coinbase concentrated on the U.S and the European markets. But, it has since opened itself up to the international market with the separation of Coinbase and Coinbase Pro. Ideally, Coinbase is a brokerage exchange where crypto traders interact with the Coinbase brokerage firm. Whereas, Coinbase Pro is specially conceived for the advanced traders who want to interact with the international crypto market directly.

Because of the highly regulated nature of the U.S crypto industry, Coinbase doesn’t allow for anonymous crypto trading. You, therefore, will be required to verify your user identity before you can make a deposit and initiate a transaction on Coinbase. Verification here involves supplying the crypto exchange with a copy of your government-issued identification document, proof of address, and a selfie.

How does Coinbase work?

To understand how Coinbase works, we first need to gain a deeper understanding of the two Coinbase exchanges

Coinbase:

As I mentioned earlier, Coinbase is more of a brokerage. This means that when buying and selling on Coinbase, unlike in any other exchange, you will not be dealing with the international crypto market and the prevailing market rates. You will instead be selling to and buying from the Coinbase Company, whose trading prices try to mirror the real crypto market rates.

One of the upsides to this is that even the smallest or biggest gets filled near instantly. This is especially important for institutions and high volume investors who don’t wish to engage in multiple transactions to have their orders filled. The biggest downside, on the other hand, is that the company, and not the open crypto market, has near-absolute control over both the buying and selling prices.

Coinbase Pro:

According to Coinbase, Coinbase pro was established to help cater to the needs of advanced crypto traders. Coinbase Pro is, therefore, a true crypto exchange that grants its traders total access to the crypto markets. You, therefore, are free to set your buying and selling prices on the Coinbase pro order book or complete your transaction using the prevailing market rates.

The main benefit of trading on Coinbase Pro is the fact that you get to interact with the markets directly and buy or sell using the real market prices and not those set by a brokerage. Coinbase Pro, on the other hand, isn’t favorable to high volume traders who would have to rely on multiple transactions to fill their single order. This exposes them to the risk of price volatility where prices spike in between the order.

Coinbase account registration

With the creation of Coinbase pro, the crypto exchange expanded its global reach from 30 to 100+ countries. Note, however, that the main Coinbase platform is still biased towards North America, Europe, and a few Latin countries. While international clients can open an account there, the much they can do with the main exchange is to exchange currencies. This is based on the fact that the exchange doesn’t support card and bank transfers from the rest of the world.

The registration process on this exchange is nonetheless relatively straightforward. The only difference from the registration process on other exchanges is the fact that it requires you to first verify your Coinbase and most other crypto accounts before making a deposit.

Number of cryptocurrencies supported on Coinbase

Another notable Coinbase feature that sets it apart from most other crypto exchanges is its conservative approach to cryptocurrencies. We note that while the rest of the industry players are welcoming to virtually every credible cryptocoin out there, the main Coinbase platform will only support 17 cryptocurrencies. Coinbase Pro adds eight more cryptos to this list to feature 25 cryptocurrencies that are tradable on its platform.

How to trade on Coinbase

To buy or sell cryptocurrencies on Coinbase and Coinbase Pro, you will first need to create a user account. Then start the verification process by confirming your phone number. You will then be directed to the identity verification page that requests you to upload such details as your identification documents, proof of address, and selfie.

Proceed to set up your preferred payment processing method from the choice of bank transfers, credit cards, Swift accounts, and even PayPal. Note, however, that PayPal is only available for withdrawals and not account deposits. Confirm the payment method, after which you are well on your way to making your first sale or purchase.

Coinbase trading fees and charges

Coinbase has one of the most complex trading fees and commissions structures we have come across. Here, trading fees are a mix of variable and fixed rates that will also depend on your preferred payment processing method and the transaction amounts. For instance, the buy and sell orders of amounts below $200 attract a fixed fee. Orders below $10 have a fixed fee of $0.99, while those between $50 and $200 are charged a maximum of $2.99.

Transactions above $200 are charged a fixed percentage that varies from one payment method to another. If you already have enough deposits in your Coinbase account to fund your crypto purchases, you will be charged 1.49%. Debit and credit card funded transactions are, however, higher at 4.99% the transaction amounts. We consider this way expensive in an industry where its competitors like Binance charge a mere 0.1% of the transaction amounts.

Deposit and withdrawal

Deposit and withdrawal methods supported by the crypto exchange include bank wire transfer, PayPal, credit, and debit cards. You will, however, do well to remember that PayPal will only support withdrawals from Coinbase and not deposits.

Additionally, credit and Debit cards can only be used to make direct purchases and not to load cash that sits idly on your Coinbase trader account. Bank Wire deposits in the UK are free while withdrawals cost £1. In the U.S, bank wire deposits and withdrawals cost $10 and $20, respectively.

Security and digital asset protection:

Granted, Coinbase has put in place some of the most formidable security and crypto assets protection measures we have come across. These include:

Two-Factor Authentication and IP whitelisting:

The foremost security safeguard employed by Coinbase is a must-have 2FA feature for all accounts. Additionally, the company embraces IP and Device whitelisting requiring new additional verification every time you log into your account from a new device or IP address.

Coinbase wallet and cold storage:

Each Coinbase and Coinbase Pro trader account comes with a free Coinbase wallet. The company goes on to claim that as much as 98% of the cryptos in these wallets are kept in cold storage while the easily accessible 2% is used to fund the exchange’s day-to-day operations.

Coinbase Vault:

The Coinbase wallet has an additional security feature dubbed the Vault. This requires you to set up a 48-hour lock-up for large balance transactions. This ensures that should anyone gain illegitimate access to your account and initiate a large balance transfer, you will have 48 hours to review and cancel the transaction before the balances leave your account.

FDIC insurance:

In an industry first, all your deposits with Coinbase are insured with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). This implies that should the company go down, you will be indemnified for deposits of up to $250,000.

Registration and regulation

Coinbase and Coinbase Pro are highly regulated and licensed by key American finance industry regulatory agencies like the SEC and Fin CEN. We, therefore, consider it one of the highly regulated crypto exchange companies in the world.

Coinbase customer support

Coinbase maintains a highly responsive and readily accessible customer support team. You can get in touch with one of their representatives via email, live chat, on social media, and even on the phone – that’s toll-free for U.S and UK Coinbase clients.

Everything else you need to know about Coinbase

Launched USDC stable coin:

Coinbase recently participated in the development and launch of the USDC stable coin. The token developed on the Ethereum blockchain will, according to Coinbase, always be valued $1 and backed by hard cash deposits into a US bank.

Launched crypto custody for institutions:

While relying on its rich history of securing client deposits and being one of the handful exchanges that have never been hacked, Coinbase launched the crypto custody for institutions. This is a standalone business operating outside the exchange that provides institutions with a safe keep for their crypto assets. It is highly secured and has the backing of a world-leading insurance policy.

Verdict: Is it safe to buy and sell on Coinbase?

We all have to agree that Coinbase has put in place more hardy security measures around their company and their client’s deposits than any other crypto exchange. From two-factor authentication to cold storages and crypto vaults. And with the integrity of these features is also regularly tested by different independent third parties, Coinbase isn’t leaving anything to chance. 

We also are alive to the fact that the company is adequately regulated by some of the most stringent financial regulatory agencies in the world and has the backing of the FDIC. And this informs our verdict that it is safe to buy and store cryptocurrencies on this exchange.

 

Categories
Cryptocurrencies

Cryptocurrency Exchanges: Don’t open an exchange account before reading this

In the early days of Bitcoin, getting your hands on some crypto meant mining or meeting someone physically and paying cash. However, Bitcoin becoming more popular and other cryptocurrencies coming on the scene meant there had to be a simpler and safer way of getting crypto. The old method of one on one wasn’t going to be sustainable anymore.

In the early days of Bitcoin, getting your hands on some crypto meant mining or meeting someone physically and paying cash. However, Bitcoin becoming more popular and other cryptocurrencies coming on the scene meant there had to be a simpler and safer way of getting crypto. The old method of one on one wasn’t going to be sustainable anymore.

In the early days of Bitcoin, getting your hands on some crypto meant mining or meeting someone physically and paying cash. However, Bitcoin becoming more popular and other cryptocurrencies coming on the scene meant there had to be a simpler and safer way of getting crypto. The old method of one on one wasn’t going to be sustainable anymore.

Cryptocurrency exchanges provide a safer and simpler way to interact with this asset class. If you’re going to buy, trade, or sell a cryptocurrency, it’s almost guaranteed that you will have to use a crypto exchange.

In this explainer, we’ll discover what a cryptocurrency exchange is, what to know before committing to one, and how a crypto exchange works.

What Are Cryptocurrency Exchanges?

Cryptocurrency exchanges are websites where you can exchange one cryptocurrency for another cryptocurrency or fiat currency. The exchange acts as the intermediary between buyers and sellers of various cryptocurrencies.

Crypto exchanges that let you trade professionally – with access to industry trading tools, will require you to fulfill KYC (Know Your Customer) procedures, i.e., submit your identity credentials in order to register with them. But there are also exchanges that let you make the occasional, simple trade (without requiring sophisticated trading tools) without requiring you to open an account.

How Cryptocurrency Exchanges Work

Cryptocurrency exchanges match buyers with sellers. When a trader places an order, they are authorizing the exchange to trade their coins for the best available price.

To transact on a crypto exchange, you must first open an account with the exchange and go through a verification check to authenticate your identity. Once this process is successful, you need to fund this account before you can buy coins.

To fund your account, you will need to deposit cryptocurrency or fiat currency. Different exchanges accept different payment methods for depositing funds. Most exchanges will accept bank wire, debit/credit cards, money orders, etc. Some exchanges may also accept PayPal or even gift cards. For withdrawals, you can use any of the options provided by the exchange, which may include bank transfer, PayPal, check mailing, credit card transfer, bank wire, etc.

You will then place a ‘buy’ order on the exchange, requesting to buy your preferred cryptocurrency at any amount below the specified maximum price. When you place an order, the exchange will put this in its ‘order book.’ An order book is a list containing all outstanding orders from traders who either want to sell or buy crypto.

The exchange seeks to find matching offers for traders. For example, let’s say you want to sell one BTC at no less than $11,000. The exchange will try matching you with a buyer who’s willing to spend that money for that amount of crypto. If they find one, the sale happens. If no prices match that amount, no transaction takes place.

Makers and Takers

Cryptocurrency exchanges usually designate traders as either makers or takers. Makers and takers are also provided with different trading fee structures. Maker fees are generally lower than taker fees. This is because a maker order is not executed right away, and this contributes to liquidity for the market – which is what any exchange wants. By contrast, a taker ‘consumes’ liquidity’ by placing a market order that immediately gets filled, hence the higher fees.

Types of Crypto Exchanges

There are four types of exchanges and which are explained below.

1. ‘’Traditional’’ Cryptocurrency Exchanges – these exchanges are akin to the traditional stock exchanges. Traders can exchange crypto based on the prevailing market price. These exchanges usually charge a fee for each transaction. Some traditional crypto exchanges allow only crypto to crypto exchanges, while others allow for crypto to fiat exchange. Coinbase Pro is an example of a traditional crypto exchange, as is Kraken.

2. Cryptocurrency Brokers – these are online exchanges that allow traders to buy and sell crypto at a price determined by the broker. The transaction is thus between the buyer and seller and the broker, and not between buyer and seller. If you’re a new crypto trader, this is a favorable option because it’s easy to use, and the broker handles the transaction for you. However, you’ll pay a slightly higher price than the traditional crypto exchange. Coinbase and Shapeshift are examples of this exchange.

3. Direct Trading Platforms – these exchanges offer direct peer-to-peer trading where people across the world can exchange crypto with each other. These platforms do not have a fixed market price; instead, buyers and sellers settle on a price. AirSwap and LocalBitcoins.com are examples of this exchange.

4. Cryptocurrency Funds – these are pools of professionally managed cryptocurrency assets that allow you to purchase and hold crypto via the fund. These funds allow you to invest in crypto without having to store it directly. Cryptocurrency funds are usually for investment purposes only. Grayscale Bitcoin Trust is an example of such a fund.

What Is A Decentralized Cryptocurrency Exchange?

A decentralized cryptocurrency exchange (DEx) is an exchange that operates without any governing authority. That means that the platform is run on a blockchain where traders can buy/sell on a peer-to-peer basis. Since it operates on a blockchain, a DEx does not hold any assets, user info, etc.

A DEx uses smart contracts to generate ‘proxy tokens,’ which are used instead of an asset- and this proxy token is used as the base for trades by users.

What to Look For In an Exchange

Before choosing your ideal crypto exchange, it will help to do a little research. Here are some aspects you should consider:

☑️ Reputation – it’s important to find out what other people say about an exchange. Look at reviews and ask questions on forums like BitcoinTalk, Quora, Reddit, and so on. Also, look at what reviews by reputable industry websites have to say.

☑️ Fees – before signing up for any exchange, be sure to look through the website and understand their deposit, transaction, and withdrawal fees. Different sites have varying fees.

☑️ Payment methods – check the payment options offered by the website. Is it a debit/credit card? Bank wire? PayPal? If an exchange has many options for payment, the better for you. Bear in mind that buying crypto with a credit card requires identity clarification and is slightly expensive because it’s prone to fraud, and it has higher processing fees. Also, buying crypto via bank wire will take longer than other options because it takes time for banks to process.

☑️ Verification requirements – the majority of the big names in crypto exchange will require some proof of identity before you make deposits and withdrawals. Other exchanges might allow you to remain anonymous. Just remember verification might be necessary to protect the exchange against scams – which comes down to protecting you and your holdings as well.

☑️ Geographical restrictions – some exchanges will exclude certain countries from their entire platform, while others will only restrict some services. You want an exchange that offers full access to all user functions and tools that you need in an exchange.

☑️ Exchange rate – exchange rates can differ substantially from one exchange to another. You can save a lot if you do a little homework before settling for any particular exchange. That said, expect rates to fluctuate up to 10% or higher, sometimes.

Conclusion

Cryptocurrency exchanges allow us to interact with crypto securely. Picking the crypto that matches your specific needs can be a daunting process. Remember to look at things such as fees, payment options, country-specific services, and reputation, etc. before settling for an exchange. Bear in mind too that you’re not limited to using only one crypto exchange.