Cex.io Review – Best Bitcoin Crypto Exchange for Crypto Trade

Being one of the oldest exchanges around the globe has both its advantages as well as disadvantages. That’s exactly why we’ve put together this cex.io review to illuminate the facts about the platform. Cex.io was found in 2013, so that clearly makes it one of the earliest Bitcoin exchanges existing today, although it didn’t start off simply as a Bitcoin exchange, instead it also boasted a mining pool which was dissolved later on. As of now, Cex.io is strictly a Bitcoin exchange, which let’s you buy and sell Bitcoins directly on the platform, as well as trade them. Update : 25th Feb, 2019: It also recently added ETH and DASH to its list of “accepted currencies” and you can buy and/or sell either of those on the platform.

Cex.io Primary Features to be Discussed

Here we enlist the primary features which we will be dissecting to the core throughout this Cex.io review:

• KYC Compliant.
• Limitations
• Payment/ Withdrawal Modes and Fee.
• Supported and unsupported countries.
• FOK transactions.
• Security

1. KYC/AML Compliant

Cex.io is a KYC (Know your customer) and AML (Anti money-laundering) platform. So there goes your anonymity and privacy down the drain. The primary reason why people use Bitcoin is, it’s anonymous, so KYC and/or AML compliance is in a direct contrast with the very essence of Bitcoin. What this means for you is, you’ll need to verify your identity and/or credit/debit cards before you can effectively start using Cex.io Cex.io supports two kinds of verification:

• Card verification: You simply need to verify your cards with Cex.io in order to withdraw or deposit funds to your Cex.io account (although it does help expand your limitations as we will discuss in the limitations section).

Here’s a video of how to verify Credit cards with Cex.io:

• Identity Verification: Cex.io requires you to submit any kind of govt. issued Identity and proof of residency certificate. You also need to manually type your personal information such as Address / D.O.B etc along with uploading the ID card to cex.io

Along with that, at times, they also ask for “Selfie with the document” for a stricter verification. This method involves the customer holding the card next to their faces, along with a paper-note and writing the sentence “For Cex.io Crypto Currency Exchange” in English, with the user’s signatures and current date on it. There also is a third method, that of the card and an identity document next to it in case you aren’t comfortable with a face-revealing selfie. It involves clicking a photo of the card, as well as an identity proof, such as Driver’s license, Passport etc right next to each other. Note that this method will only be accepted if the identity-proof is in English, and transliterated in Latin. While the above measures might seem a bit harsh and privacy-invading, the one added feature which somewhat eases out the privacy exposure is that, Cex.io also supports a special kind of identity verification. It lets you submit a normal written confirmation from the place you work/study with their official stamp and signature, mentioning your name and address and that’s considered valid as well. So bottomline, I’d rate it a 2/5 for now for killing Bitcoin anonymity. But it’s just about one section, let’s see how it performs on the other aspects of its existence.

2. Verification Tiers

CEX.io recently changed its verification tiers. And, to be honest, it’s much simpler to understand it now. So, new users start with an Intro account. No verification required. Users with these accounts can deposit a maximum of $100.00. The lifetime deposit can’t exceed this amount on the Intro accounts. Withdrawals are limited at $100.00/day. However, if you verify your Identity, the limits are increased to $3,000.00/day and withdrawals up to $10,000/day. Then there’s the address verification. If you choose to do this, you get to deposit up to $10,000.00/day and withdraw up to $50,000/day. Two other verification levels exist, one is called the “Enhanced” level, the other is termed “Corporate”. The documents required for these vary and are disclosed when the verification is applied. Deposit/withdrawals on these accounts is unlimited. Do note that the verification levels also control the payment modes. Meaning, not all deposit modes are available to everyone. They’re made available depending on the verification level.

3. Payment/Withdrawal Modes and Fee

Cex.io primarily supports the following payment as well as Withdrawal modes:

• VISA / Master cards.
• Bank transfers.
• Crypto Capital transfers.

Although on the “Basic” accounts, Bank transfers aren’t allowed, and are available only for the verified or superior account levels. So all the three payment/withdrawal options are available for all accounts, except the Basic.

Fee

The fee and commissions structure depends on the mode of payment used. For Deposits:

• VISA/ Master Cards: 3.5%+ $0.25 all accounts.
• Bank transfers – No Fee from Cex.io (Not allowed on Basic accounts).
• Crypto Capital Transfers – No fee from Cex.io (Not allowed on Basic accounts).

For Withdrawals:

• VISA Card: $3.80/withdrawal.
• Master card: 1.2%+ $3.80/ Withdrawal.
• Bank transfers: $50.00/ Withdrawal.
• Crypto Capital Transfers: 1%

For Buying and Selling Bitcoins: And if you do not buy the Bitcoins via Cex.io, and instead wish to trade them with other sellers on the platform, the fee differs. There’ll be the “deposit fee” which will incur based on your mode of deposit used to fund your accounts (Cards / Bank transfer / Crypto Capital transfer), and in addition to that you’ll also have to pay a transaction fee based on your amount of trade. The fee structure has been recently changed. In the early days, the trades were free for the “Makers”, and only the takers were charged for the transaction. But as of today, both the parties need to pay a trading fee. It obviously is based on the “Trade volume” of the user alike most other trading exchanges. So now the fee starts at 0.25% for takers and 0.16% for makers. As the trade volume increases, the fee goes lower. The lowest possible fee is 0.10% for Takers if they trade 6,000BTC+ in 30 days. Trades for makers become absolutely free once they cross a 3000BTC trade threshold in 30days. So for this Cex.io review, we will rate its fee-structure a 3/5 considering it’s slightly higher than most of its rivals. (However, there’s a good reason to it, scroll down to the FOK section for more).

4. Cex.io Margin Trading

It’s an aspect no other Cex.io review on the whole vastness of the Internet covers, so we decided to do so! If you’re familiar with Margin trading, great. If not, let us just outline the definition for you. It’s basically a process of “borrowing money” on the platform and trade it for profit even when you don’t have the actual funds in your account. Much like our real-life credit cards systems, you use the money first, pay later when you get your salaries (make profits in this case). As far as its Margin trading features go, we must admit they’ve left no stone upturned, and we’re not stating that simply because this is a Cex.io review, but because that’s a fact, the features will should back our talk:

• Multiple leverage positions: Cex.io allows 1:2 as well as 1:3 opening positions!
• Single Account: Unlike other Bitcoin exchanges which require you to setup an additional, separate account for margin trading, Cex.io let’s you trade with your general account itself!
• Feasible roll-over fee structure: You pay the roll-over fee only on opened positions, and to add to all of that, there’s no roll-over fee for the first 4 hours!
• No negative balance: There’s a fail -safe in place which makes sure your balance never goes down into the negatives.
• Automated funds borrowing: When a position is placed, funds are automatically borrowed without you having to manually go through a tedious process of doing the same.

So I believe now you know why we sang praise-songs for its Margin trading aspect just couple seconds ago on this Cex.io review, don’t you? And here’s a close look at its fee-structure for the Margin traders. Let’s rate it a 5/5 for the scope of this Cex.io review, cause hey honestly I didn’t find a reason not to!

5. Supported and Unsupported Countries

Cex.io does support most countries across the globe, but then again it has a pretty long list of countries which it doesn’t support as well, and I believe this Cex.io review can’t be complete without being honest and transparent about such facts. It’s a longer list, but here’s a piece of it to paint you a basic picture:

• Afghanistan
• Bosnia
• Libya
• Syria
• Sudan
• Nigeria
• Uganda

It’s just around 10% of the list, we can’t scribble down every single restricted country on this Cex.io review, although the complete list can be found here. Also note that these countries are limited based on “payment modes”, meaning a country might be restricted for card payment, but it might be allowed for Bank transfers or vice-versa. In the United States too, it supports only 25 of the States and isn’t available for the other half. So as far as country support goes, let’s rate it 3/5 on this Cex.io review simply because it doesn’t have 100% coverage in the U.S, or 100% Global coverage either for that matter. But even then, compared to most other Bitcoin exchanges, we can clearly say it has done a competitive job.

6. FOK – Fill or Kill Transactions

This is the primary feather in the cap of this Cex.io review, something that separates, differentiates, and grants Cex.io the unique identity that it wears with such pride. This also is the reason why the fee-structure for the buying/selling of Bitcoins is slightly higher than its competitors, so pay close attention and light shalt be upon ye (a bit dramatic, eh?) FOK transactions are transactions, which guarantee you pay and receive what you agree upon when entering a trade. In other words, if you agree to pay $100 for 0.2382BTC, that’s the exact amount you’ll receive, or higher, but never lower. If market conditions aren’t adequate and the BTC price skyrockets during your process, the transaction is killed, ensuring you do not receive a lower amount than what was agreed upon. FOK orders are fulfilled instantly, once you hit the “Buy” button, the price you agreed upon is frozen for 120 seconds and the order is either filled or killed, but it’s instant. This is why the fee is found to be slightly higher compared to other exchanges. So we most-definitely will rate the transaction procedure a 5/5 for this Cex.io review considering how it’s almost exclusive to the platform.

7. Security

Literally being one of the oldest players in the game is no easy deed, especially when you have a platform as feature-rich as Cex.io as you might have gathered throughout this Cex.io review. So obviously, they pay extra special attention to their users’ security. Emails are literally one of the easiest things to be hacked, hence they’ve added special protection measures such as:

• 2-Factor authentication – Verify ownership by confirming OTP sent to your mobile phones.
• 2-Factor Auth. Via Google Authenticator: You can also use the Google authenticator to validate your account in a more modern, simpler way without having to receive and type OTPs.
• Action Confirmations – Even when 2 FA is disabled, all actions on Cex.io still need to be confirmed via E-mail, so that’s like a mandatory firewall all Cex.io accounts have.

8. Android and iOS Support

We get it, not everyone sleeps with their computers. Most people don’t even use computers these days, and everything gets done on Mobile phones. So can you buy/sell/trade on Cex on your mobile phones? Fortunately, you can. Here are the download links:

• Android
• iOS

If you’ve got your doubts, you also can head over to the official site and grab these links directly from there. The mobile interface is crafted for newcomers, almost everyone can use it without ease. One of my personal favorite features is that it lets me login using a QR code instead of the ID-Password combo.

9. Stacking

CEX’s most recent feature-update is Stacking, and a pretty profitable one as well for their users. Stacking would basically turn your CEX account into an interest-generating bank account. In simpler words, you generate an interest on your stored funds simply for keeping your funds on CEX. It’s not a new-feature for the industry however CEX does offer its unique blend. Stacking on most other platforms requires “locking of funds”. But there’s no such limitation on CEX. So you’re free to use your coins normally as you would without stacking, and still earn an interest on them. Obviously not all coins support stacking. Currently the following coins do:-

• NEO
• ONT
• TRX and
• MHC

The interest rate varies as shown in the following screenshot: Cosmos and Tezos are two other coins which are soon to be listed for staking as well. No special requirements whatsoever is required in order to stack coins on CEX. Furthermore, the minimum limit for stacking is as low as 1NEO, 10 ONT or 1,000TRX for the respective coins. The rewards are automated and no manual action is required in order to collect them either.

10. Buy Bitcoins directly

As mentioned in the earlier sections of this Cex.io review, Cex.io also lets you buy/sell as well as trade Bitcoins, so here’s the fee it charges for the services. You can buy Bitcoins directly on CEX.IO. It lets buying Bitcoins via Cards (VISA/ Mastercard), bank transfers, Skrill, and also domestic bank transfers. The best part is, there’s no hardcore verification involved either. Just enter your card details and it’s auto-verified within seconds. The fee is a very acceptable 2.99%. It accepts USD/EUR/GPB/RUB transactions. Do note that cards from all the countries and all the currencies are accepted. The value is just auto-converted from your native currency to USD. You can purchase a minimum $20.00 worth of funds. The maximum limit without any verification is $100.00. However, it can easily be increased to over $3000.00 by completing the identity verification. Selected Bitcoin Related Posts for You:

• How to buy Bitcoins with Credit Card
• How to buy Bitcoins with Debit Card
• How to buy Bitcoins with PayPal
• How to buy Bitcoins with Cash
• Best Trading platform for Trade

Is CEX Legit or Scam?

CEX is 100% a legit as well as a legal company. It’s based out of England, Wales and is a Private Incorporated Company as its registration certificate proves. It also is certified from the Information Commissioner’s office and we’ve obtained a copy of their certificate.  It also has an updated PSI DSS certificate as of 15th February, 2019. This certificate ensures safe, legitimate financial transactions. On the surface level too the reputation and professionalism it has acquired only speaks in favor of the company being completely legal. Probably that is why it has such strict KYC policies.

Is Cex.IO a Bitcoin Wallet?

No, even though they officially claim of their potential to be used as a Bitcoin wallet. For starters, it’s a centralized company hence you don’t own your private keys, and they have absolute control over your funds as well as accounts. Secondly, it’s primarily an “exchange” hence making it prone to various kinds of attacks and scams. It’s always best to go for a standalone wallet, such as Electrum.

What are Cex’s Exchange Rates?

CEX’s exchange rates are around USD $100 more than what’s shown on a standard Google search for Bitcoin price. Meaning if you search for “1 BTC=USD” on Google (or check the price on Bitcoin.com), whatever rate is shown is generally a 100 dollars more than what CEX will give you for the same funds.

Final Words about Cex.io Review

So, that’s a wrap up for this Cex.io review folks. Now for the million dollar question, Is Cex.io worth it? Yeah the fee is high, and yeah they do need identity verification, but hey let’s read between the lines for once, it’s still offering instant, guaranteed FOK transactions, a wide range of account options, lets  you use Credit/Debit cards along with Bank and SEPA transfers, is big on security not to mention the already established, half a decade of trust that Cex.io has curated for itself. So, it’s personally a big yes for me (in cases when I’m ready to compromise upon the privacy), so my final verdict is, it’s literally one of the best exchanges as long as you aren’t an extremely privacy conscious person. You just need to weigh in between your “Privacy : Features” ratio, depending on which you prefer more is how you make your choice. Do let me know your verdict on this Cex.io review, as well as the platform’s performance in general.