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CEX.IO is a global crypto ecosystem offering 80+ assets, staking rewards, margin trading, and more.
The platform has a $20 minimum requirement for card deposits, and its fees range from 0% to 0.25%.
CEX.IO isn’t available to residents of New York or Virginia.
Click here to set up an account with CEX.IO.
Founded in 2013, CEX.IO says it was one of the first crypto platforms to make fiat-to-crypto transactions (exchanging crypto assets for fiat money like USD or EUR) accessible through card payments and bank transfers. Konstantin Anissimov, CEX.IO’s executive director, describes the platform as an ever-expanding “ecosystem of a collection of products” for retail and institutional investors.
The marketplace not only offers instant buy/sell transaction options (this only applies to credit and debit card purchases) and crypto trading, but it also provides a CEX.IO Prime platform for businesses. Individual traders can also take advantage of margin trading, staking rewards, and more.
CEX.IO says it supports 99% of countries across the globe, with more than $4 million registered users. Keep reading to see if it’s right for you.
CEX.IO is available on iOS and Android devices.
CEX.IO and Kraken have similar fee ranges, but the two vary when it comes to investment choices. While CEX.IO has a larger digital asset selection, Kraken offers a wider range of investment options (e.g., futures). Kraken also offers more trading platforms that cater to beginners, advanced crypto traders, and futures crypto traders.
Gemini, on the other hand, has a smaller cryptocurrency selection than Kraken, but it makes up for it with its $o account minimum, insurance-backed account storage options, crypto rewards, and more.
If CEX.IO seems like a better fit, though, keep reading to see how it works.
Coins and tokensCEX.IO offers instant cryptocurrency purchases for traders using credit or debit cards, and it allows you to fund your account with bank or cryptocurrency transfers.
Its investment selection — which includes more than 80 assets like bitcoin and ethereum — is available to traders around the world, including residents in the 48 US states and Washington, DC CEX.IO supports (New York and Virginia are excluded).
The platform has a smaller coin offering, though. CEX.IO says it offers trading opportunities for bitcoin, bitcoin cash, bitcoin gold, ethereum, zcash, and dash.
When it comes to account features, CEX.IO offers the following:
Staking (with staking, you can earn monthly interest just by holding certain assets for a set period of time)Spot trading (this feature provides more order options for advanced traders)Crypto-backed loansMargin trading (CEX.IO lets you borrow up to 100 times your account balance to trade more assets)Institutional features (API tools for automated trading, order execution tools, payment services, and more)For staking, each asset has its own minimum holdings requirement, and though interest rates vary per asset, some cryptocurrencies have APYs as high as 20%. Learn more about CEX.IO’s staking options here.
Though the staking, savings, and crypto-backed loan offerings aren’t currently available in the US, the company says it’s working on making those accessible in the future.
CEX.IO’s marketing strategist Oxana Kunets says the company also offers another rare feature that most platforms don’t: instant withdrawals on crypto assets. “Here, you sell and the money shows [up] on your card right away.”
Fee structureCEX.IO charges a maker/taker transaction fee that is based on your 30-day trading volume for all trading pairs. Maker fees apply to orders that can’t be executed immediately since there aren’t any matching orders. Taker fees, however, are for orders that instantly match with other orders, making them immediately marketable.
Traders who place more trades within a 30-day span pay less at CEX.IO. For instance, maker fees range from 0.10% to 0.25%. While the 0.25% fee applies to users who make no more than five trades within the 30-day range, you’ll only pay 0.10% if you place more than 6,000.
The same applies to taker fees. While a 0.16% fee applies to a maximum 30-day trade volume of five, you won’t have to pay anything if your trading volume exceeds 6,000.
You’ll also run into different fees for payment methods. See the complete fee/commission schedule here.
Institutional servicesAlong with the CEX.IO Group-sponsored Prime platform, CEX.IO has two options for businesses, professional traders, and enterprise clients: CEX.IO Aggregator and CEX.IO Direct.
CEX.IO Aggregator is a
liquidity
provider that focuses on delivering efficient order execution for institutional clients.
CEX.IO Direct lets you embed cryptocurrency access, user verification, procurement, and delivery to your website or mobile app, according to its website.
Geographic restrictionsCEX.IO has several limitations for customers in certain locations. Though the crypto exchange supports US traders in 48 states and Washington, DC (excluding New York and Virginia), its staking, crypto loan, and savings features currently aren’t available to US users.
Cryptocurrency access also varies for users from different countries. Specifically, some crypto assets won’t be available for traders from the United States, Canada, China, and South Korea, according to CEX.IO.
See a complete list of its geographic restrictions here.
CEX.IO currently has an NR (“No rating”) status with the Better Business Bureau. The BBB’s ratings range from A+ to F, but it says it doesn’t have sufficient information to issue a rating for CEX.IO.
Ratings typically reflect the BBB’s opinion of how well a company interacts with its customers. The bureau also takes several factors into consideration, including type of business, time in business, licensing and government actions, and advertising issues.
The exchange has closed six complaints in the last 12 months, according to the BBB.
Rickie Houston is a wealth-building reporter at Personal Finance Insider who covers investing, cryptocurrency exchanges, brokerage, and wealth-building products.
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