Australia has seen a drastic rise in crypto scamming for the year 2018. According to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, as well as other government agencies crypto scams have risen significantly the last year totaling 674 separate cases and reported losses are more than AU$6.1 million (US$4.3 million). This is an almost 200% increase to the losses suffered in 2017 (US$1.48 million). The information comes from the tenth annual “Targeting Scams” report of the ACCC.

Reading through the report it seems the gist of the scam is quite straightforward with online scammers appealing to traders through fake trading platforms and promises of major winnings on crypto currencies. Of course, once the consumer wishes to withdraw said winnings a technical problem occurs or the people behind the website simply stop answering. According to the some reports that clients were asked by scammers to visit nearby bitcoin ATMs to convert fiat into cryptocurrency and transfer it to them. All in all, the ACCC reports that victims of investment scams for 2018 lost a total of $1.83 million in cryptocurrencies.

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Zaif, the Japanese cryptocurrency exchange, which last year lost over 60 million USD to hackers, resumed operations on Tuesday, April 23rd, after a publicly listed Japanese investment firm Fisco took over the crypto business, paying 5 billion Japanese yen or roughly 44,7 million USD.

Zaif Crypto Exchange was hacked back in September 2018 and lost nearly 7 billion Japanese Yen or 62,5 million USD worth of Bitcoins, Monacoins and Bitcoin Cash.

Since the hacker attack registration of new members has been suspended, while trading, depositing and withdrawing of Monacoins has been frozen since October 10th 2018.

Cryptomate.co.uk is a company, which provides a gateway into the world of cryptocurrencies for UK enthusiasts. While CoinCorner is one of the other major entry-level services, supporting the British Pound, there are quite a few differences between the two.

The company, security of funds


Cryptomate is registered in the UK, but does not fall under any specific financial regulation, unlike Crypto Facilities. That being said the latter offers derivatives trading, while Cryptomate is more of service, than a trading facility.

The company is basically a peer-to-peer network, connecting buyers and sellers of cryptocurrencies, although not everybody can sell at the website. In order to become a “vendor” one must contact the website and probably meet some volume requirements. The most unique feature at Cryptomate is that only UK bank transfers are accepted as a payment method.

This “exchange” is one of the few which doesn’t offer a wallet, although they provide useful links for beginners, who can read-up on the topic. When making an order at Cryptomate, you have to provide your own external address, to which the coins will be sent.

Unlike a lot of other companies in the space, Cryptomate has to follow the working hours of UK banks. This is simply due to the fact, each transfer comes has is connected with the Faster Payments Service (FPS). For those of you who are not familiar with it, this is a system connecting British banks, allowing them to make cheaper and faster payments between one another (much like the SEPA system in the EU).

Cryptomate claims around a transaction processing time of aroun 15 minutes. While this is absurd from a trading perspective, it is actually quite fast, when compared to similar services, like CoinTree in Australia.

There haven’t been any reports on hacks at Cryptomate. The fact the company only connects buyers with vendors and does not store any cryptocurrencies has something to do with this – there are very few things which can be hacked.

When it comes to the user reviews, Cryptomate is generally praised. The few complaints we managed to find were in regard to the lack of transparency on the execution. This is a common theme with such services, as the volatility in the crypto-space is very high.
 
Trading conditions

Trading instruments (cryptocurrencies)

Despite the service being very different from a traditional exchange, the vendors at Cryptomate do offer a lot of variety. At the time of writing of this review 12 coins are available for purchase, namely: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Ripple, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum Classic, Dash, Ark, Dogecoin, Monero, Zcash and Britcoin.

Maximum daily transaction(s)

Cryptomate has set a daily limit of £100 for unverified clients. After submitting your details, this level will be increased to £1,000. These levels are set as an anti money laundering (AML) measure. 

Leverage

It should be quite obvious by now, that margin trading is now available at Cryptomate. However one can always transfer her cryptocurrency to a different exchange, like OKEX if speculative trading is the main goal.

Fees

Cryptomate does not disclose the exact fees, which it charges. User reports claim around 7%. Our manual calculations, which may be a bit faulty revealed a similar, if not slightly worse situation. While these fees are not unheard of, given what the company offers, there are slightly cheaper alternatives. However most of them do not support the Pound as a direct payment currency, with CoinCorner being the major exception.

The forex brokers, offering cryptocurrency trading usually do not charge a deposit fee. When you start trading your costs will be included in the spread. However, when trading CFDs you do not get ownership of the actual coins. As we mentioned previously, this is suitable for short-term speculative trading, but for a full comparison be sure to check out our detailed explanation.
 
Trading platform

When it comes to a “trading platform”, Cryptomate offers basically an order entry form.

You have to give them a few details and most importantly, the wallet to which you would like your newly acquired coins to be sent. The information provided on the left side will be useful for newbies in the space.
 
Methods of payment

As we mentioned in the beginning, in order to present the service, only UK bank transfers are accepted at Cryptomate. While this guarantees fast executions, due to the FPS, it obviously prevents non-British clients to use the service. Adding an option like Skrill, would open the company to a world-wide client-base.
 
Conclusion

Cryptomate is a British service, which allows newcomers to enter the world of cryptocurrencies. Their offer is tailor-made to UK residents who have a local bank account, as payments utilize the Faster Payments Service (FPS). While this is obviously a beginner-friendly service, the number of available altcoins is relatively nice.

BTCBOX is a Japanese cryptocurrency exchange. They operate from the domain btcbox dot co dot jp and should not be confused with btcbox dot in – a platform which supposedly provides “free Bitcoin”, but has received multiple negative reviews. The distinction is quite important as the Japanese exchange appears to be a very reputable one.

BTCBOX Advantages

FSA Licensed – BTCBOX is the eight cryptocurrency company to be overseen by the Japanese Financial Services Agency (JFSA). This brings a lot of credibility to their offer, as not a lot of Bitcoin exchanges are regulated by a reputable financial watchdog. They also provide information about the actual company behind the project and their banking partners. While this sounds natural for a regulated company, it isn’t always the case with shadier trading venues. Two-factor verification is also provided.
 
Decent fees, BTC is free – trading Bitcoin at BTCBOX comes without any costs. That being said, altcoin traders will be charged a 0.20% fee. This applies both for market “makers” (the people who place passive orders in the book) and “takers” (the ones who buy or sell at the best price available). This is pretty much the standard at this point in time – not too high, but also not too low, when compared to the competition.

No deposit fees – there are no deposit fees on blockchain transfers to BTCBOX. Additionally the company does not charge anything extra on bank transfers. While certain costs will be involved in either form of deposit (be they mining or banking), the company does not take anything extra.

1:3 in leverage – BTCBOX is one of the few exchanges to facilitate margin trading. However, according to company policy each trader willing to borrow coins will have to be processed manually. This means it could be hours or even day before you are approved to receive it. This can definitely be an issue for aggressive traders, who are willing to jump on a chart setup.

Japanese banking support – BTCBOX accepts Japanese Yen deposits. This makes them a great entry-level exchange for the locals.

Two trading platforms – trading at this exchange is done via two interfaces. One of them is rather simple and rather nice. Additionally, a more “professional” version is also available. It offers solid charting and is arranged even more conveniently.

BTCBOX Disadvantages

Focus on Japan – while English and Chinese versions of the website, this is still an exchange primarily oriented towards Japan. It is not certainn if the support will be up to par with the one provided by other companies (although basically everyone has received negative comments on this point).

Margin is not instant – the fact margin has to be provided to clients on an individual basis can be troubling. Considering the terms delays may be quite possible.

Only four coins available – the short list of digital assets available at BTCBOX includes: BTC, BCH, LTC and ETH. Volumes on the ones other than Bitcoin are rather low.

Trading only against JPY – this is another thing limiting non-Japanese clients. It’s just company policy and there is nothing wrong with that, but we must mention it.

Withdrawal fees present – while they are small, these fees may irritate some users. The Bitcoin one is 0.001BTC.

No user reviews in English – BTCBOX doesn’t appear to be popular in the West. This is to be expected, given the previous factors.

Conclusion

BTCBOX is a Japanese cryptocurrency exchange, which is regulated by the Financial Services Agency (JFSA). This makes them a much more credible company than most of the competition. They provide access to Japanese customers to the world of crypto, as they even accept bank transfers. That being said, they may not be the ideal trading venue for a foreigner.

Coinfloor is one of the major players in the UK cryptocurrency space. The company allows relatively easy access to Bitcoin, with trading directly against GBP. This makes them a rival to CryptoMate, although a few specifics of their trading conditions make them not that beginner friendly.

The company, security of funds

Coinfloor is based in London, but given the nature of its service, the company is not under the regulatory zeal of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The company states it “maintains communication with the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the European Commission”, but we can’t be sure what this communication exactly entails.

That being said, with the 100% cold storage policy, Coinfloor is one of the safest exchanges around. It is not surprising that they haven’t experienced a major hack yet, unlike Bitfinex.

The user reviews on Coinfloor are mostly negative. While some clients enjoy the simplicity offered by them as well as the UK focus, there are multiple complaints featuring various themes.

The company apparently sends blockchain transfers rarely. This means that if you buy Bitcoin and you wish to send it to an external wallet or another exchange, you may be waiting (a lot according to some users). Customer support is also allegedly non-responsive and the account verification process is not that smooth.
 
Trading conditions

Trading instruments (cryptocurrencies)

Coinfloor offers trading (fiat) currencies against a few coins. The main volume and liquidity is concentrated in Bitcoin trading against the British pound. The full list of trading instruments includes XBT/GBP, XBT/EUR, XBT/USD, BCH/GBP, ETH/GBP, ETC/GBP, XRP/GBP, LTC/GBP.

Minimum initial deposit

Coinfloor has set a minimum fiat currency deposit of GBP/EUR/USD 1000. This is very unusual for a crypto-exchange, as a lot of people prefer to try things out with a smaller investment. Additionally a 0.0050 XBT minimum level is applied for blockchain transfers

Leverage

Trading on leverage is not supported by Coinfloor. While this may feel like a hindrance to some, keep in mind cryptocurrencies are pretty volatile as is. If you really want to gear-up you can try trading at another exchange, like Kraken.

Fees

While CoinFloor claims to be offering 0% fees for trading, there are fees when making a deposit and withdrawal. The charges, measured in different currencies are very unusual. The starting level in Euros is €1.5, while in dollar terms the minimum is $10. Above anything else, this is strange.

Methods of payment

Coinfloor accepts blockchain and bank transfers. While a fiat option is available, the minimum deposit requirement makes this exchange not that beginner friendly.

Conclusion

Coinfloor is a UK-based cryptocurrency exchange.While the company is one of the longest-running London-based players in the market there are a lot of user complaints surrounding it. They cover all the areas you can imagine. Additionally volume and liquidity in the non-GBP pairs is allegedly low.

Digital Securities Exchange (DSX) is a UK cryptocurrency exchange for some of the most popular crypto currencies (Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, and Bitcoin Cash). It also accepts real money and supports crypto-to-fiat transfers. A certain minimum investment is required by DSX, which is rather symbolic, and the exchange does not provide leverage.

In order to start trading on this exchange, you should not only register a DSX account, and also undergo account verification. So, no anonymous trading allowed at DSX, which partly defies the purpose of Bitcoin. Most cryptocurrency exchanges allow non-verified account holders to trade up to certain volumes. UK exchange Bitlish is one of them, where verified and anonymous traders are charged differently.

The Company. Security of funds

London-based DSX crypto-exchange was launched in december, 2014. The company acts as a EMD Agent - an authorised representative of a firm regulated by Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). As a payment services agent of ePayments Systems Limited, DSX is registered with FCA and its Financial Ombuds. #moderation man service might consider a dispute with this firm, however it cannot be determined whether it would be covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). Nonetheless, DSX's status as a registered agent of ePayments Systems adds a certain layer of credibility to the exchange, as most such venues, including UK-based ones, are not registered or licensed by any authority.

This makes DSX a direct contender to CEX.IO, another UK cryptocurrency exchange that is registered as a payment provider by FCA. If you are familiar with forex trading, you probably know what are the advantages of dealing with FCA-regulated brokers: these are subjected to strict rules, and their clients are covered by the FSCS up to £50,000.

There is no information about any major hacks of DSX, so the assumption is that the exchange has not been subjected to such yet. There don't seem to be any user reviews on DSX either. Except only one, that was rather negative, saying that it is almost impossible to understand how the quotes are formed on this platform. That being said, there is a strange explanation on the exchange’s execution in DSX Trading Manual. According to the text, the company processes all orders clients place by placing an identical order (referred to as "Back-to-Back Order") on the DSX (or, in some circumstances, on other trading platforms). Furthermore, in exceptional circumstances, the company says it might obtain prices from third party sources.

Trading conditions

Trading instruments (cryptocurrencies)

Several coins are available for trading at DSX, including BTC, BCC, LTC, ETH, and BTG. More importantly, there are also two fiat currencies (EUR, GBP & USD) against which the above cryptocurrencies can be traded. The most commonly traded pair at DSX is BTC/USD.

Minimum initial deposit

DSX has set the following minimum investment amounts for deposits in cryptocurrencies:

-Minimum 0.00000001 BTC
-Minimum 0.00000001 BCC
-Minimum 0.00000001 LTC
-Minimum 0.01 ETH.

As regards initial investments in Fiat currencies, the minimun amounts are 1.00 USD, 1.00 EUR or 1.00 RUB

Leverage

As we have already mentioned, margin trading is not available at DSX and most crypto-exchanges don’t offer this kind of service. Probably it is because the volatile nature of digital coins, to which leverage would add additional risk.

Fees

This exchange has a teared commission structure designed to reward high volume traders.

If you are not a high-volume trader, however, the fees applicable are slightly above the average – 0.20% for market makers and 0.35% for market takers. Many crypto exchanges do not charge market “makers” as those are the people who place pending orders and provide liquidity. For example, market makers are not charged at Bitlish, while verified takers pay a fee of 0.2%.

On the other hand, referral programme participants also get to trade with reduced fees.
 
Trading platform

Trading at DSX is done on a user-friendly web-based platform, as is most often the case with crypto-exchanges. Such platforms can be accessed from any device, without the need to install any additional software, but on the other hand, trading activity is limited to a single screen.

In addition to its basic options to buy and sell, the platform offers price charts from TradingView, as well as some analysis tools, which is a true advantage.

Methods of payment

DSX offers variety of methods of payments the company provides. The exchange allows clients to transfer funds with Bank transfers, including SEPA (USD, EUR, RUB fiat currencies supported), ePayments Wallet (USD, EUR, RUB) and Digital Currencies (BTC, BCC, LTC, ETH).

Deposits to DSX are free, while withdrawals are charged.

Furthermore, DSX traders worldwide can instantly access their funds with ePayments card – a pre-paid MasterCard offered by the payment processor, which can also be used to withdraw cash from ATMs.

Conclusion

Digital Securities Exchange is a London-based crypto currency exchange that works in partnership with ePayments - an Electronic Money Institution, authorised by FCA. Apart from this, DSX supports several fiat currencies, and offers variety of convenient payment methods, including SEPA and a prepaid card. However, there are no exotic altcoins available for trade at this exchange and it is not clear how the quotes are formed on this platform.

Coinsquare is based in Toronto. This is heavily advertised as a positive factor, as Canada is obviously a developed country with a sound financial and regulatory environment.

The focus on Canadian customers is further underlined by the fact the company offers trading against the CAD. While this is a major currency, followed closely by a lot of forex traders, it is by no means widely used out of the country, as the US dollar for instance. That being said the Base currency of your Coinsquare account can be: CAD, USD, EUR, GBP, AUD or BTC.

Trading in some exotic forms of metals trading is also available at Coinsquare.

A 95% cold storage policy is implied at Coinsquare. This is a solid measure, which guarantees a very high level of security. So far Coinsquare has not been involved in a major hacking scandal.

There are relatively few reviews on Coinsquare, but a decent portion of them are negative. While the service is easy to use, some users apparently didn’t understand the fee structure completely. Furthermore, there are some very serious claims regarding price manipulation.

Another interesting, but not crucial point is that this is one of the few exchanges, which exclusively states it doesn’t provide services to residents of New York. Of course, this is due to the 2015 BitLicence, which attempts to regulate cryptocurrency exchanges in the Big Apple.

Coinsquare has also started offering “Wealth” services to those who place very big orders. There are three “account types”, based on the size of each transfer you make, starting from $25,000. The benefits gained feature lower bank transfer fees, OTC trading and more.

Trading conditions

Trading instruments (cryptocurrencies)

When building a portfolio at Coinsquare one can include several assets, including some which are even more unusual than cryptocurrencies.

The digital assets include: Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Dash, Dogecoin, Litecoin.

The fiat currencies available are: CAD, USD, EUR, GBP, AUD.

Additionally they allow trading in gold and silver Bars, as well as silver coins. These are traded differently than the spot pairs XAU/USD and XAG/USD, which forex traders are probably familiar with. We are not certain if the instruments offered by Coinsquare are only financial or feature physical delivery of the coins and bars upon request.

Minimum initial deposit

The minimum initial deposit at Coinsquare is $100. Given the Canadian focus of this company, we are not sure if this is measured in USD or CAD. This is a reasonable level of an initial investment, which is also required by a lot of forex brokers, like FxPro.

While one of the payment methods at Coinsquare has a lower minimum deposit, $100 is needed in order to confirm your bank account, which you will need in order to make a withdrawal.

Leverage

Coinsquare does not currently support margin trading. This is expected, as the company is targeting beginners and allowing the creation of a more long-term portfolio. Other crypto-exchanges do offer margin trading for some coins.

Fees

The fee structure at Coinsquare Is transparent. The costs of making transaction on Coinsquare are in-line with the rest of the industry. They charge 0.10% for market makers (the traders who passively provide liquidity to the exchange) and 0.20% for market takers – the ones buying or selling directly at the best possible price. Nowadays some exchanges, like GDAX charge 0.25%.

Additionally a QuickTrade feature is available. It has slightly higher fees, which can go up to 0.4%, depending on the asset class.

Trading platform
 
Coinsquare offers a web-based interface, as well as a mobile app. We chose the word interface, as their offering represents what a long term investor will use to look at her assets instead of an actual trading platform, like MetaTrader4 (MT4), for instance. That being said, it does its job pretty well.

The section which requires account verification features a pie-chart of your holdings, once you have any. Charting in this section is very basic with little room for technical analysis.

Methods of payment

Coinsquare accepts a lot of Canad-specific payment systems, as well as Bank Transfers. They provide a lot of details on the fees and speed of each option.

Conclusion

Coinsquare is a Canadian cryptocurrency exchange. The company offers a gateway to Bitcoin and other similar assets, with a great emphasis on the domestic market. They provide solid security features and appear to be a safe company to deal with, while trading veterans will find their entire offering a bit too basic. On the other hand, we found a plethora of negative user reviews about this exchange. Even though, you always have to take these with a grain of salt, some of them include fierce acusations.

Prosecutors in the US raised criminal charges against the founders of OneCoin – a crypto currency, which allegedly turned out to be a multibillion-dollar pyramid scheme.

Konstantin Ignatov, the CEO of OneCoin Ltd and his sister Ruja Ignatova, known as “the Cryptoqueen,” are accused of misleading investors with promises of huge returns with a minimal risk.

According to the US Prosecutors OneCoin, which is still in business with more than 3 million members, has been run like a pyramid – OneCoin members were recruiting new members to buy cryptocurrency packages in exchange of commissions.

The 1,2 billion USD investor money that are located until now have been laundered through 21 countries, the prosecutors also said.

For the two year period ended in September 2016 OneCoin records show profit of 2.23 billion EUR on sales of 3.35 billion EUR.

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