If you’re exploring cryptocurrency trading, you’ll have to join an exchanger platform just like you do for a fiat currency. There, you can buy and sell coins of your choices in exchange for AUD or other cryptocurrencies. CoinSpot is one such exchange platform. Read this detailed CoinSpot review to learn more about it.
Basic Specifics:
- Name: CoinSpot
- Founder: Russell Wilson
- Founded In: 2013 in Melbourne Australia
- Type: Online Cryptocurrency Exchange
- Fiat Currency: Australian Dollar
- Cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin, Ripple, Litecoin, Etherium and over 100 more
Why Listen to Our Advice?
When you need to buy a laptop, what do you do? You either read reviews from experts on the internet or ask the experts at the store for suggestions, right?
Well, the same is for crypto trading; you need to get an expert’s advice when dealing with an exchanger like CoinSpot that’ll turn your dollars into cryptocurrency for trading.
We are the experts in the Australian crypto market and are familiar with all Aussie exchangers ranging from Independent Reserve to Bitaroo, Coinjar and more.
Introduction to CoinSpot:
If you are familiar with CoinSpot, you can skip past this section and move to the detailed CoinSpot review below. However, if you want to know the background of this exchange, stick to the end of this section. CoinSpot is a cryptocurrency exchange that makes it easy for users to buy & sell a variety of tokens and coins. CoinSpot opened its doors to online exchange in the first half of 2013, focusing on trading Bitcoin.
Since then, they have expanded into one of Australia’s most well-known crypto trading platforms with a range of cryptocurrencies, user-friendly features, and various payment methods. The founder of the company is Russell Wilson, who’s been active in media and on the internet as a spokesperson of his company since it was established. The fact that its owner ‘owns’ his company and doesn’t hide behind curtains of anonymity favours the reliability of CoinSpot.
Signing Up for CoinSpot – Is it Easy?
Creating an account on CoinSpot is pretty straightforward. However, getting verified is a bit of a hassle. You will have to provide the following things for verification:
- Full Name
- Australian Street Address
- Australian Phone Number
- Some Kind of Identification (learner’s or driver’s card)
- Utility Bill Photo as Address Proof
Once this is done, you’ll be able to set up 2-factor authentication using your phone number and email. Keep in mind, in some cases, CoinSpot can give you a hard time by asking for a selfie with a piece of paper having your name and stating you want to join CoinSpot.
This seems like a lot of work, but it needs to be done for security purposes and to ensure compliance with anti-money laundering laws. Plus, this shows CoinSpot cares about rules and regulations, which is a good sign.
Once everything is done and documents are submitted for verification, it should take 24-48 hours for your account to go live, and you’ll be able to start trading right after that.
Depositing Currency – Which Payment Option Works Best?
One of the best features of CoinSpot is its range of deposit methods. However, most of them charge unreasonable fees, so you should be careful about the method of payment you choose. Let’s take a look at them below:
- POLi: Hands down, the best way to transfer money into your CoinSpot account. It is instant, has the highest daily deposit limit of $20,000 and the best part, it’s free!
- BPAY: Charges 0.9% fee, has maximum daily deposit limit of $10,000 and takes 0-2 business days for transfer.
- PayID: Also free, the maximum daily limit depends on your bank, and transfer is instant too.
- Cash Deposit: Charges a 2.5% fee; the max daily deposit is $8000; the transfer is also instant.
- Direct Deposit: Also free, a daily limit is unknown and takes 1-3 days to transfer.
Seeing the above, it’s pointless to use any other deposit method other than POLi and PayID. The platform has top security tools in place to ensure the transfer of funds is always safe.
You can also deposit Bitcoin by going to the ‘Wallet’ tab at the top section of your CoinSpot dashboard, go to ‘Receive Bitcoin’, and you’ll be provided with their Bitcoin wallet address. Send the coin to that address.
WARNING! DO NOT USE CoinSpot’s INSTANT BUY/SELL/SWAP TOOLS:
CoinSpot appears to be more catered towards the newcomers who just want to purchase cryptocurrency for the first time. However, if you’re one of them, be very careful as you can easily be taken advantage of. This is because there are two ways to trade crypto on the platform ‘Instant Buy, Sell & Swap’ and ‘Market Orders’.
The reason we’re warning you about the instant feature is the hefty fee. Contrary to market orders with a 0.1% fee, instant buy, sell, and swap will take a 1% fee, 10x more than the market. So, for instance, if you buy Bitcoin worth $10,000 AUD using the ‘Instant Buy’ feature, you’ll be charged $100 AUD.
Now, if you sell the coins after a few days, you’ll be charged another 1%, let’s say it’s the same $100 AUD, then the total becomes $200 AUD. And if you deposited the $10,000 via the ‘Cash Deposit’ method, you would’ve paid 2.5% ($250 AUD) as well. So the total fee paid on $10,000 would’ve been $450 with the Instant Cash Deposit method. That’s A LOT of money to be paid in fees.
It’s clear how nasty CoinSpot can get when it comes to charging fees, and most of the beginners fall victim to this. But since you’ve read this far, you won’t be shelling out massive bucks for such simple operations. Here’s what you should do instead:
On your CoinSpot dashboard, you’ll see many options; avoid these three ‘Buy/Sell, Swap and Bundles’. It can be especially tempting for a beginner to just click on the bundle’s option and purchase different cryptocurrencies in one go. However, the fee would be 1%, which is a lot. So we suggest going for the ‘Markets’ option next to OTC on the top navigation menu.
Here, you will see a screen with all the cryptocurrencies available on the platform. The best part is that you’ll only pay a 0.1% fee, which is fair and similar to other platforms like CoinJar. When you sell the cryptocurrency, you’ll be paying the same 0.1% fee, so on $10,000 AUD, you’ll only pay $10 when buying and $10 when you sell, and if you deposit using POLi or PAYid, there’s no deposit fee, so $20 AUD is all you’ll pay on your trades worth of $10,000 AUD, which is nothing.
Okay, So Only Market Should be Used When Trading on CoinSpot – But Does it Even Have a Good Amount of Trading Volume?
That’s something everyone using CoinSpot should be asking because lack of trading volume means difficulty in trading and lower liquidity of your crypto assets. As far as the market of CoinSpot is concerned, there’s a decent trading volume for Bitcoin, at least.
However, they do not report the trading volume of the platform, which is a little odd considering most exchangers do show their volumes.
Even though the Bitcoin volume is reasonable, we wouldn’t suggest trading other currencies on the platform, especially if they’re not as popular as Etherium, Litecoin, Bitcoin or Ripple etc.
So What About the 100+ Coins Available on CoinSpot?
Seeing the above, you might wonder, if only Bitcoin has potential on CoinSpot, then why they advertise themselves as the platform where you can buy and sell more crypto than other exchangers in Australia? Although they are correct in their advertising, it doesn’t mean that the availability of cryptocurrency options is enough to trade them on CoinSpot.
As discussed above, we need to look at the trade volume for every currency before we can make a trade. And in the case of CoinSpot, trade volume is only decent for other currencies when you trade them using the ‘Instant Buy and Sell’ feature. But that will cost you a 1% fee, which is not recommended if the volume of trade is high.
If you want to use the instant buy/sell feature, then before executing a trade, check if the coin is listed on other exchanges in and out of Australia. Compare the fees and prices and see if it’s viable for you to use CoinSpot for the trade. You can use Livecoinwatch.com to check the exchangers with currencies you want to buy or sell. This will help you get an idea of whether you should use CoinSpot or any other platform for trading that particular currency.
The Bottom Line:
CoinSpot is one of the best exchangers if you’re trading big, popular currencies like Bitcoin with some volume. Since the deposit is free with POLi and PayID and the fee with market trade is also just 0.1%, you’ll keep more of your profits on trades.
But if you want to trade new or less popular cryptocurrencies, then it doesn’t matter how many CoinSpot has listed; with market trade, their volume might not be very reliable.
