Mercury.Cash

[mlawson71]

Mercury.Cash is a US entry-level cryptocurrency exchange, which only facilitates the direct purchase of a given coin (i.e. isn’t a trading venue, suitable for active speculation). The company based in Orlando, Florida is a bit of a newer player on the market and their most unique feature is the lack of support for Bitcoin.

Mercury.Cash Advantages

Some licensing – Mercury.Cash puts a great emphasis on providing a legally complaint environment. They have listed several licenses, they hold, though the only crypto-specific US regulation, the NY BitLicense isn’t among them.

Similar licenses are also held by other exchanges, especially the ones offering USD payments, but they don’t feel the need to disclose them.

Credit Card and Bank payments – an obvious advantage of this exchange, and the main reason for its existence is the fact it allows you to convert USD into crypto. The support for both Bank Transfers and Credit Cards makes them an easy to access service, while the costs for some of the methods are rather high (more on that later).

Transparent team – the people behind Mercury.Cash aren’t afraid to show their faces to the public. This may not sound that impressive, but a lot of the cryptocurrency exchanges don’t even go this far. Alongside the licenses, this brings a lot of credibility.

Few, but positive user reviews – there aren’t that many comments on this exchange, but the vast majority of them are nice. People realize the fees aren’t that competitive, but they are fully disclosed before you send an order and the transfer always goes through.

Mercury.Cash Disadvantages

Fees are rather high – the costs of trading at this exchange aren’t that attractive.

Most of the costs are slightly not competitive, but the 10% credit card charge is way too high.

Only ETH and DASH supported – the strangest aspect of Mercury.Cash is the fact they don’t offer the oldest and most popular cryptocurrency – Bitcoin. Ethereum and Dash are definitely major coins, but this still looks unusual.

Only a gateway – when trading at this exchange, one can’t intensively speculate on the price fluctuations of digital assets. In other words, this is an “exchnager” and not an “exchange”. Other venues allow you to be more aggressive and frequently swap between coins.

Full KYC required – this isn’t a major issue for real clients, who want to use the service, but we weren’t able to access the platform, for the purposes of this review. Judging by the company’s offering, they likely only provide basic charting and a simple interface, similar to that on your online banking, instead of an actual trading environment.
 
Conclusion

Mercury.Cash is an Orlando-based entry-level cryptocurrency exchange. They seems like a credible company, with all the licensing they have provided. On the other hand, their offering is still rather limited, when compared to some of the more well-known players in the field. With only ETH and DASH supported and the current state of the fees, it’s not surprising Mercury.Cash isn’t that popular of a service.

Despite the fact, this appears to be a very legitimate exchange, there will always be some level of risk involved in the cryptocurrency space. Other than the immense price volatility, even the most reputable exchanges have been hacked in the past.