Trading Accounts and Conditions

*Wthdrawal fee of 0.001 BTC / 0.01 ETC also applies.

**Deposit and withdrawal fees also apply.

BTCC is the oldest and biggest cryptocurrncy exchanges in China. Although BTCChina has exited the Chinese Market in October, 2017, its other exchanges, BTCC DAX, as well as the USD exchange, are functioning.

BTCC offers crypto-to-crypto and fiat-to-crypto trading on different exchanges, as listed in the table above. Besides, it also offers some additional services like Physical Bitcoins (Mint), Mobi Bitcoin Wallet, and others. The good thing is, you can access both exchanges and all services through a single BTCC account. More importantly, BTCC has one of the larges mining pools globally. At the time of writing of this review, they had mined around 3.4% of the newly created Bitcoin (for the last 24 hours) . 

BTCC Advantages

Good reputation, proven security

Founded back in 2011, BTCC is the longest-running bitcoin exchange worldwide. It was the dominant player for CNY/BTC trades before it closed its China operations. It is still considered as one of the best exchanges for trading in popular digital coins like BTC, ETH, ETC and BCC.

BTCC has a 100% track record in security since its inception, as it has not experienced any major hacks in its long history. More than 95% of its users’ digital assets are kept in cold storage with multi-signature controls to minimize the risk and exposure to hacking.

Large trading volume, deep liquidity

Currently, BTCC is rated 16th by 24-hour trading volume according to the data provided by CoinMarketCap and is typically among the top 20 players in this category. This basically means that its users don’t have to worry about insufficient liquidity.

Supports fiat (USD) currency, and Bank Wire and credit card transfers offered

On BTCC’s USD exchange you can exchange your dollars for Bitcon, or vice versa. Supporting fiat currencies is an advantage, especially for newcomers in the cryptocurrency world, who are yet to buy some digital coins with their real money in traditional currencies. For those, using their credit card or bank account is utterly convenient.

>>A list of crypto-exchanges accepting credit cards<<

Competitive trading fees

The fees charged by BTCC are relatively competitive, amounting to 0.1% / 0.2% per trade. Typically, exchanges charge 0.20% - 0.25%. However, some of them do not charge market makers, as the latter provide exchanges with liquidity.

Relatively low withdrawal fee

Like most exchanges, BTCC does not charge blockchain deposits. Other than this, certain fees apply to deposits in fiat currency, as well as to withdrawals, depending on the funding method and the currency. While many exchanges charge quite hefty deposit and withdrawal fees, BTCC's commission seem relatively low:

Platform with advanced trading user face

Most cryptocurrency exchanges do not offer advanced platforms like the most popular forex and CFD trading terminal for MetaTrader 4. Nonetheless, BTCC has chosen a different approach – not only that it offers crypto-to-crypto and crypto-to-fiat trading on different exchanges, but the latter has two different interfaces – basic and professional. The advanced trading user interface offers lots of bells and whistles: wide range of technical indicators, advanced charts, add-ons, etc. Besides, there is WebSocket and FIX API available for professional clients’ trading needs. Of course, BTCC Mobile App is also offered.

BTCC’ advanced trading UI. Click to zoom in.

Extra Services

In addition to having one of the largest and top-rated mining pools in the world and operating several crypto-exchanges, BTCC offers a service called BTCC Mint. These are titanium coins that can be purchased with BTC and are shipped to all countries except the US.

BTCC also offers its Mobi Digital Currency Wallet, allowing storage, conversion, and transfer of bitcoin and more than 100 currencies, including the United States dollar, the British pound, and the euro.

BTCC Disadvantages

Not regulated

Like most crypto-exchanges, BTCC is not licensed, nor overseen by any governmental authority. So, this is no big issue.

If you prefer to trade in digital coins via a regulated company, we remind you that you can do that with forex brokers. Make sure you are aware of the differences between trading on an exchange and with forex brokerage beforehand.

>> Check out our list of regulated bitcoin forex brokers <<

Limited instrument portfolio

BTCC doesn’t offer a wide range of pairs for trade, choosing instead to focus on a smaller number of high-volume ones. Currently the available ones on both exchanges are: BTC/USD (constituting 70% of its overall volume), BCC/BTC, ETH/BTC, and ETC/BTC.

If you would rather trade in more exotic cryptocurrencies, check out Bittrex – this major US exchange offers over 190 digital assets for trade.

No margin trading

As a matter of fact, BTCC used to offer margin trading but discontinued this service in the beginning of 2017 after “discussions” with the People’s Bank of China (PBOC). Most cryptocurrency exchanges do not offer leverage, but there are some who do, like Kraken, Quoinex and others. Besides, all forex brokers ffer leveraged trading on cryptocurrency CFDs.

>> Brokers offering leveraged Bitcoin trading <<

No anonymous trading

Since BTCC Exchange requires its users to verify their identity in order to trade in order to ensure the safety and security of the funds and activities on its platforms. Identity verification is also required in compliance with certain government AML KYC regulations. Verification process can be slow and complicated. Besides, it defies the initial idea of of Bitcoin to allow anonymous trades.

Conclusion

BTCC is the oldest Bitcoin exchange worldwide. It is highly regarded for its reliability, security, deep liquidity and the extra services it provides for its users.

Initially set up in Shanghai in 2011, BTCC was one of the Chinese “Big Three” along with Huobi and OkCoin. Following China’s ICO ban in the country, BTCC shut down its local division (BTCChina). BTCC DAX and BTCC USD exchanges, however, are functioning, and the company operates via its units in the UK and Hong Kong BTCC (UK Limited or XO Market Limited).

None of these companies is formally regulated, but this does not effect the overall reliability of BTCC. Unlike the situation with forex brokers, the legal crypto-exchanges is still unclear in most countries. The important thing is, BTCC complies with governmental instructions – its halted margin trading, and was the first among the “Big Three” to shut down its Chinese operations. More importantly, it keeps clients’ assets in cold storage and has not been hacked during its long years of operation.

Besides, BTCC has a lot of advantages, apart from its reliability: competitive fees, various transfer methods supported, advanced trading platform with mobile app, and some great extra services, such as top-tear mining pool.

Trading Accounts & Conditions

* Trading fees depend on users’ trading volume.

**Withdrawals in Status (SNT) & Golem (GNT) are free of charge.

As it name suggests, Ethfinex is a cryptocurrency exchange, which is heavily connected to Ethereum. Another thing one could tell by this venue’s name is that it belongs to a group of companies around one of the oldest and most popular exchanges, Bitfinex. Its parent company also runs the Tether.to platform.

Trading is live on Ethfinex for all existing Bitfinex users since December 29th. New signups will be available from January 15th. Currently still in beta, Ethfinex platform allows for trading in ERC-20 compatible tokens and Ethereum-based crowd sales with options for margin trading, as well as access to a peer-to-peer funding market. By the time of writing of the present review, the exchange is in the top 15 by trading volume at CoinMarketCap.

In addition, it offers a token of its own, called the Nectar token (or NEC). It is given for free to token market makers in proportion to the volume of trades they participate in on the exchange.

Ethfinex’s security is based on the expertise gained by Bitfinex’s team. The majority of system funds are stored in offline, in ‘cold’ wallets. Only around 0.5% of all crypto assets are accessible in ‘hot’ wallets for day-to-day platform operations. 

Ethfinex Advantages

Hybrid decentralized exchange, part of a trusted group

Ethfinex is planned as a hybrid decentralized exchange. In the long term, the company plans to move towards a completely trustless exchange, steadily decentralizing ownership of the platform to its community of users. The company’s team has learned the hard way that running an exchange on a centralized server is dangerous. Bitfinex was hacked in 2016, and approximately US$72 million was stolen in the form of Bitcoin. Eventually, the company managed to pay back the money to all its clients.

On the other hand, decentralized exchanges do not store coins, funds, private keys or user information on centralized servers, thereby making it very difficult for hackers to compromise sensitive information.

Competitive fees

At Ethfinex market makers are charged up to 0.1% per trade, and market takers – up to 0.2%, which is in line with the average pricing in the crypto world these days. Those users who trade in large volume get discounts. By the way, Bitfinex has exactly the same trading fee structure.

Deposit and withdrawal fees by Ethfinex are also competitive. Deposits in digital assets are free of charge, while those in USD are charged with 0.1%. Withdrawal fees of this exchange are also in line with the average in the industry.

Leveraged trading available

Similarly to its older brother Bitfinex, Ethfinex provides margin trading. The maximum leverage level available at both exchanges is 1:3.3. If you want to speculate aggressively with the price of Bitcoin or Ethereum, there are some forex brokers that offer higher leverage ratios.

>>Forex brokers offering leveraged Ethereum trading<< 

We must mention that trading in volatile assets such as cryptocurrencies involves risk of loss, which are multiplied if you use leverage. So, be careful when trading on margin.

Many Ethereum-based coins available

Ethfinex offers trading in decent amount of Ethereum-based tokens, such as Ethereum, OmiseGO, EOS, Aventus, Status, Golem, and more. Although its crypto portfolio cannot be compared to the one offered by EtherDelta, the trading volumes at Ethfinex appear higher on most instruments.

Fiat accepted, bank wire transfers supported

This exchange accepts US dollars, one of the most popular “traditional” currencies.   This makes the services offered by Ethfinex more accessible to beginner traders, as it accepts cash payments via bank wire transfer.

Community vote for listing tokens

One of the biggest problems with most centralized exchanges is their reluctance to list tokens with a large community backing. That is why we consider Ethfinex’ decision to list new tokens after rounds of voting by the crypto-community as an advantage.

Ethfinex Disadvantages

No Bitcoin

As this platform is dedicated to Ethereum and ERC-20 tokens, you canot trade in Bitcoin on Ethfinex. However, you can always do that on the group’s Bitfinex platform. 

Registered offshore

While Bitfinex is operated by Hong Kong based iFinex Inc., the company operating this exchange, Ethfinex Inc., is registered offshore. According to its Terms of Service, the governing law is the one of the British Virgin Islands. Companies registered offshore generally do not inspire a lot of trust.

Dependent on the Ethereum network 

If there is serious backlog on the Ethereum network, the activity at Ethfinex will also become slow, as trading is done mostly against ETH.

Conclusion

Launched by an established group in the cryptocurrency world, Ethfinex seems like an attractive exchange, especially to fans of Ethereum and Ethereum-based coins. It is planned like a platform based on a hybrid decentralized architecture, that will allow decentralized exchanges to plug into it and trade with Ethfinex customers, as well as each other.

Now in beta, Ethfinex is accessible to Bitfinex account holders with competitive trading and transfer fees. There is a decent amount of altcoins available to trade at the exchange, and besides, cash is accepted. Similarly to Bitfinex, Ethfinex provides leverage up to 1:3.3, which is a nice extra feature that most exchanges do not offer.

Although little to no regulation is applied to the crypto-exchanges in most jurisdictions, we don’t like the fact that Ethfinex Inc. is registered offshore. As we mentioned above, some forex brokers offer CFDs on digital assets. For those ofyou who prefer to invest in regulated entities, we have prepared a list of well-regulated ones.

>> Regulated Bitcoin forex brokers<<

Here is our summary of this exchange: