Every cryptocurrency trader needs an online platform called an exchanger or broker from where they buy and sell the currency and profit from the difference. If you’re also looking to trade crypto or just want to buy some and hold for a long time, you need to sign up for one of these exchange platforms. CoinJar is also a cryptocurrency exchanger, and if you’re interested in learning about its good and bad, before signing up, read this detailed coinjar review until the end.
Basic Specifications:
- Name: CoinJar
- Founded In: 2013 in Melbourne Australia
- Founder: Asher Tan
- Type: Online Cryptocurrency Exchange
- Fiat Currency: AUD and GBP
- Cryptocurrencies: 24 including Bitcoin, Etherium, Ripple, Litecoin, and ZCash
Why Listen To Our Advice?
Every decision you make involves some sort of risk; it’s up to you to mitigate that risk and ensure you get the most benefit out of your choices. The same is with cryptocurrency. Your risk starts right when you sign up for an exchange platform and deposit your hard-earned dollars even before investing.
You need someone who’s been in the game for years and can tell you the black and white of the crypto exchanger you’re thinking of joining.
We’re that advisor. We can help you determine if signing up for CoinJar is the right step or if you should look for another platform in this detailed CoinJar review.
Brief Intro of CoinJar:
Based in Melbourne, Australia, CoinJar is an online cryptocurrency exchanger that allows you to trade cryptocurrencies with ease. The platform has over 24 currencies, with the five; Bitcoin, Etherium, Ripple, Litecoin, and ZCash, more prominent.
CoinJar is a very well-known platform in Australia and allows Aussies to deposit and withdraw their dollars using their local bank accounts. If you’re outside of Australia, you can only deposit funds in CoinJar using a cryptocurrency they accept.
The team of CoinJar is planning on expanding the platform to other countries, but we’re not sure when that’ll happen, so as of now, it’s mainly open to Aussies. The platform also has a simple cryptocurrency index fund allowing you to trade on four cryptocurrencies with a single investment.
Joining CoinJar:
The process for signing up for CoinJar is relatively simpler than its counterparts like CoinSpot. All you need to do is signup using your email and phone number and then go through a simple verification process. Here are a few things to provide during the verification process:
- Your Australian Digital ID
- Personal Identification (driver’s license, passport etc.)
- Fill in all personal details like name and address as shown on your Identification document
Once you submit the details, it’ll take 24-48 hours to process and verify your information, and if everything checks out, you’ll be provided access to the platform for trading.
Depositing Funds in CoinJar:
Just like any popular cryptocurrency exchanger in Australia, you’ll have multiple modes of transferring funds to the platform. CoinJar offers three modes; let’s have a look at them below:
- PayID/NPP: You can send payments through PayID from your Australian bank account. These deposits are supported by NPP and Osko, which can be used 24/7.
- Cash Deposit: This is done using Blueshyft and will incur a fee of 1.5%. The transfer is almost instant.
- BPAY: This is the widely used method for sending payment to CoinJar in Australia and takes 1-2 days for the funds to land in your account. Although it’s free for funds deposit, in some conditions, like a deposit of under $10, you may have to pay a fee. Read more here.
You can also deposit money using cryptocurrency, especially if you’re outside of Australia. It’s also free and doesn’t take more than a day to get funds in your CoinJar account.
Brief Difference Between CoinJar & CoinJar Exchange – Which One to Use?
When you open up your CoinJar dashboard, you’ll come across three products; CoinJar Exchange, CoinJar Digital Currency, and CoinJar for Companies/Institutions. Since you’re an individual, you don’t have to worry about the third one. Out of the remaining two, we recommend you use the CoinJar Exchange to buy/sell your cryptocurrency and do not even touch the CoinJar digital currency option. The main reason for this is the hefty fees.
The digital currency feature charges a 1% fee when you buy or sell your cryptocurrency, which is way higher than any other exchanger. The benefit of using this feature is having crypto in your CoinJar mobile app to buy real things. But why do this and pay 1% on every purchase when you can buy stuff with your fiat currency without any fees?
Now, as for the CoinJar app feature for receiving and sending crypto without the need for any outside service, you can use other free software like MetaMask for Etherium and Bitcoin Core for Bitcoin. You can view balance and send/receive crypto on your own and store private keys on your PC or hardware wallet, which is a securer and preferred method of storing as well.
Bottom Line: Avoid a 1% fee on the CoinJar Digital Currency account by only buying crypto on CoinJar Exchange and then withdrawing it to your private account(s) using the free software mentioned above.
So, What’s Makes CoinJar Exchange So Great?
This CoinJar review is specifically going to talk about the CoinJar Exchange and not the digital currency account because of the reasons mentioned above. That said, the best part of the CoinJar platform is its simple and clean interface with a graph having a level 2 table showing the sellers and buyer. This is something not many exchanges do; they show level 2 tables but not the graph.
The interface works great, and everything important is available on the single screen. You can access buy/sell orders from the left side of the screen and track open and closed orders at the bottom. One of the best parts about CoinJar is its trading fees; they’re structured in a very balanced way. There are two types of fees; taker and maker.
- Taker Fee: When you place an order, and it gets filled immediately and takes out a standing order, you’ll be charged a taker fee. For instance, if someone placed a sell order for BTC worth $10,000 AUD and you put in order to buy $10,000 worth of BTC and it gets filled, then you are taking out that sell order, and thus, charged with taker fee. The Taker fee varies depending on how big your trade’s volume is in a 30-day window. Its 0.1% for over $10m AUD transaction, 0.2% for $1m AUD – $10m AUD and 0.3% for $0 to $1m AUD transaction.
- Maker Fee: The maker fee is the opposite of this. It is charged when you place an order first, and someone else fills it. For instance, you place an order to sell $10,000 AUD worth of BTC, and someone else buys from you and fills up the order, then they’ll pay the takers fee, and you’ll pay the makers fee. The Maker fee varies depending on how big your trade’s volume is in a 30-day window. There’s no fee for $100,000 AUD to $10m+ AUD transactions. You’ll be charged 0.1% for $10,000 to $100,000 AUD and 0.2% for 0$ to $10,000 AUD.
We strongly suggest you only buy on bid and sell on ask because then you’ll only be charged the maker fee, which is a lot less (0.2% at most) than the taker fee. And if you end up trading over $10,000 over the course of 30 days, the fee will go down to 0.1%, which is not that hard to achieve.
Some Caveats of CoinJar Exchange:
Despite its low fees and great interface with detailed charts and graphs, CoinJar doesn’t have a very high trading volume. Unlike other popular exchangers in Australia like Independent Reserve, that’s more than double the volume of CoinJar, but then it also has higher fees. So if you’re someone looking to trade very high volumes, then CoinJar might not be the right platform for you; it doesn’t have that level of liquidity.
Also, with low trading volumes, the bid/ask spreads will also be higher, resulting in selling and buying at less optimal prices than the active exchange rate of the market. You can use the website CoinGecko.com to check the trading volumes of exchanges you’re joining.
That said, one thing to note here is that a very limited number of cryptocurrencies can be traded on CoinJar; at the time of writing this CoinJar review in the mid of 2021, there are 20-25 currencies listed with Bitcoin, Etherium, Ripple and Litecoin being more prominent. And that’s because only these 3-4 cryptocurrencies have decent trading volume; the rest are not that liquid.
So if you’re interested in BitCoin or Etherium and won’t be making massive investments, then CoinJar is good enough for you.
Parting Words:
CoinJar is a decent platform and has very low fees. Plus, it works really well for mid-size trades for BitCoin, Ripple, Litecoin and Etherium as their trading volumes are decent but not very high. Just make sure to use only CoinJar Exchange and not the Digital Currency Account to avoid paying hefty fees of 1% on your trades.
