CEX.io: Bitcoin Exchange & Cryptocurrency Coin Trading Platform

2018 CEX.io Review – Is the Exchange Still Reliable?

Cex.io is one of the more popular cryptocurrency exchange platforms, thanks to its very beginner friendly interface and a wide array of tools designed for crypto investors and traders at all levels of expertise.

Up until recently when they started having customer verification issues, their reputation was spotless, and they were considered one of the best crypto exchanges in the world.

Unfortunately, their recent mild issues have been responsible for a drastic drop in transaction volume. Naturally, this has caused intending and current traders to slow down on their trading using the same platform.

But does this mean that the exchange is unreliable or problematic? Not at all. As you’ll see in this review, we’ll be exploring its features and benefits, as well as giving you a general overview of the platform. Cex.io is a very safe and secure cryptocurrency exchange platform.

In this Cex.io review, we’ll be showing you everything you need to know to make an informed decision about whether it’s the right platform for you or not.

This will include a step by step guide showing you how to go about registering, their verification process, fees and important features that will help make trading easy and straightforward.

We guarantee that you will be able to start trading within minutes of reading this review. So, without further ado, let’s get started.

CEX.io General Overview

CEX.IO has been designed as the place for every individual who is looking just to sell and buy Bitcoins. Have the ability to deposit funds with the use of either your master card, VISA or through a bank transfer. This is not all as the platform can allow individuals to instantly sell or buy Bitcoins at a fair price without attracting any extra costs.

Headquartered in London, the company was established in 2013, as a bitcoin pool mining outfit. While it ran the cloud mining pool, it was the world’s biggest bitcoin mining pool, with a 42 percent market share.

They ran the Ghash.io cloud mining pool for two years before pulling out of the bitcoin mining business and transforming into an exchange.

This was right around the time bitcoin prices slumped and mining became far less profitable. The company has since then, grown to become one of the world’s leading cryptocurrency exchange platforms.

The platform has attracted over 700,000 users around the world, users who are satisfied with the platform, so for sure this is the platform you should consider to be a part of. The company has also designed an advanced order matching algorithm that has been backed by a unique trade engine.

The system has also been incorporated into an order book liquidity that will allow all the users the ability to execute high orders and also be able to apply the market making trading. You are also able to sculpt the best strategies and high-frequency trading to ensure you enjoy success in your Bitcoin trading.

Why is Cex.io Different?

Cex.io competes directly with Coinbase. Only instead of limiting traders to a certain geographical territory like Coinbase does, membership on the platform is worldwide, including over 20 states in the US.

The exchange is currently registered with FINCEN, making it a legally operating entity within and outside the US. As a Money Services Business, their security measures and exchange services are top notch and in compliance with industry standards.

However, you need to understand that because of their compliance to regulations, registration on the platform requires a declaration of who you are.

This means you will need to share some personal information usually in the form of an identification, utility bill and so on. This is in keeping with the regulatory body’s KYC and Anti-Money Laundering policies.

The company’s processes are also in keeping with the financial regulatory bodies in the UK. As a result, users are often able to directly buy their cryptocurrencies of choice using fiat currencies.

So, instead of going through the arduous process of locating a bitcoin or cryptocurrency vendor and then buying directly from them, you can simply pay for your cryptocurrency by using your debit or credit cards.

Naturally, these strong ties to financial institutions is the reason for the zero anonymity on the platform as well as some of the other requirements they demand.

However, these small restrictions haven’t prevented over 1 million members who use the platform for daily trading. Users can easily access the platform through the website on their desktop and through their apps on mobile devices.

While the platform allows for the trading of many cryptos, the more common fiat/crypto trading pairs include USD/BTC, EUR/BTC, ETH/USD, ETH/EUR XRP/USD, DASH/USD, XLM/USD and ZEC/USD.

Why should you choose the CEX.IO platform?

The platform has been designed with several desirable features, some of which we feel you should be aware of.

The best payment options available

The platform has been incorporated into the most popular methods you can find, this is from MasterCard, VISA or a simple bank transfer, or the use of cryptocurrency.

The system is incorporated with a strong security

The company has gone a step ahead in combining the best security system you can find in the market. It is to ensure you enjoy the protection against any DDoS attacks, there is full data encryption, and a system that is compliant with the PCI DSS standards.

There is world coverage

The system is able to provide services in 99% of the countries that are around the globe; this is including about 24 states that are in the USA.

The system is legal compliant

The company’s registration is based in the UK, it has an MSB status in FinCEN, and they have ensured to get the necessary licenses that are around and has a very strong relationship with several banks.

The platform is offering competitive commission

The company has ensured they have incorporated reasonable trading fees for the makers and the takers. And for the high volume trader be sure to enjoy special conditions, not forgetting there are also strong offers to the market makers.

There is high liquidity on the platform

The platform is able to offer fast order execution with a low spread to ensure trading is successful to all. You will also have access to high liquidity order book for the top currency pairs.

The platform offers advanced reporting

The platform has been designed with downloadable reports that have real-time balance; the report is also incorporated into transaction history to give you a better picture with transparent fees.

There is also cross-platform trading

The platform has been designed in a way that allows trading on the mobile app, website, REST API, and WebSocket. For the institutional traders, they are able to use the FIX API for easy trading.

What’s Been Happening Lately?

Well, the recent rise in popularity of cryptocurrencies as well as the promise of unfounded gains resulted in a huge influx of members to the exchange platform.

Unfortunately, this sudden influx resulted in long vetting timeframes, verification inconsistencies, and restricted accounts. As a result, new customers were not verified quickly, neither were traders able to access their deposits.

This, combined with the overwhelmed customer support resulted in significant lags between customer registration and their verification. Therefore, many potential new users as well as older traders just abandoned the platform.

That, plus the slow customer care response, caused users to panic and abandon platform. However, this problem wasn’t unique to CEX. Other exchanges like Binance, Coinrail and even Bittrex had to temporarily stop the registration of new members because of the huge influx.

The mistake CEX made was that they should have done the same, but they didn’t. Anyway, the company is avidly working on getting things are back to normal now and transactions as well as replies to customer inquiries are faster now.

The platform is doing everything possible to revert to 100 percent functionality so that traders and investors can take advantage of the current/impending cryptocurrency boom.

How to Join or Sign Up with CEX.io

This exchange platform has a very easy to use interface, making it very easy for anyone to join. You’ll need a debit or credit card for buying cryptocurrencies on the platform. Transfers from the platform can be sent to your bank, credit or debit cards too.

As earlier stated, you will need to provide a few documents to help with your identify verification. This is the only way to remove all account restrictions and help you trade in huge volumes successfully.

New traders will find the comprehensive ID verification guide handy for the process. You’ll need the following to register:

• One means of identification -driving license, national ID card, or passport
• Valid phone number
• One proof of residence –utility bills, tax return or bank statements or rent receipts
• Selfie of you holding one of the identification cards

That’s basically all you need to get verified. Once you have all these documents, simply scan or take the photos and upload them.

Now, it is very possible to sign up and just try to use the facilities as is. That just gives you access to the back office, so you can see what it looks like.

If you want to trade or invest, you will need to go through the verification process. While it’s true that the verification process can be a real hassle, they make up for it by the relatively short verification period.

The good news is it only takes 24 hours or less to have your documents verified. This is different from many other platforms that can take anywhere from 3 to 5 business days.

The exchange takes its security seriously. This is why they have recently introduced an email and phone number verification per account process. This way, every user is only able to have one account as against the past where one person can have multiple accounts on the exchange.

Step By Step Guide to Opening a CEX.io Account

Now that you’re ready to open an account, the following step by step directions will help you get started. Just follow the steps, and you’ll find it’s easy as a breeze.

1. Register a New Account

Go to the website’s homepage at https://cex.io/. Make sure there’s the https:// at the beginning of the URL. Then, click Register on the upper right hand corner of the page

or scroll down and click Get Started

Once you click that, you’ll get a page like this:

Enter the necessary details in all the designated fields, agree to the terms and conditions, check the captcha box and register.

Once done, they’ll send you a verification email. Check your mail and verify your email (if it’s not in your inbox, check your spam/junk/bulk folder).

You can also sign up using your Google or Facebook accounts. Please note that the platform will not accept yahoo based email addresses during your signup.

Once your email has been verified, you’ll need to provide a phone number that you’ll use for your two-factor authentication (2FA). This is necessary for keeping your account safe and is tied to your phone number.

You can actually skip the 2FA step, but it will leave your account vulnerable to hack attacks. After setting that up, the next thing is to proceed to the verification stage, starting with the filling out of your profile page.

2. Filling Your Profile Page and Verification

You’ll fill out your profile, including name, address, phone number and all the necessary details. Once that is done, it’s time to verify the account.

To do that, go to the upper right hand side of the member’s area, click the tab, you’ll see a dropdown menu, look for Verification tab. Once you click that, you’ll see the following page:

Fill in the necessary details and click Next Step to upload your documents and submit. After that, you’ll just wait until you receive a notification that your account has either been verified or not.

3. Getting Your Account Funded

While you can easily fund your account with cryptos you bought elsewhere, CEX.io’s major attraction is the fact that you can easily buy any of the available cryptocurrencies using your Visa or MasterCard debit or credit cards, crypto capital and bank transfers.

It is a pretty straightforward process, but can take time to get your account credited –funds can take up to 14 business days to get clear. This is a major drawback of the platform seeing as many other exchanges make your funds available within minutes.

Just click the Deposit tab, and you’ll get this:

Choose your preferred funding method and click Proceed. Just follow the prompts to fund your account. It’s pretty straightforward.

After that, you can simply proceed to buying your cryptocurrency of choice.

How to Buy Bitcoins and Other Cryptos on CEX.io

The process is pretty simple.

1. Link your Visa card or MasterCard, or bank account to your CEX.io account
2. Add some funds to your account
3. Use the funds to purchase bitcoins or any cryptocurrency of your choice

Here’s a pictorial example:

See? Very simple and straightforward, isn’t it? The good news is if you intend to buy any of the cryptos that are paired with fiat currencies, you can do so directly, instead of buying bitcoins first and then converting it to your crypto of choice.

Withdrawing Your Funds on CEX.io

This is pretty straightforward too. The exchange provides options to withdraw your funds and have them directly deposited in your cards or bank account.

All you have to do is specify how much you intend to withdraw, click withdraw and voila, your account will be credited within 1-5 business days.

Please note however, that withdrawals are impossible if you haven’t been verified. So, make sure you’re fully verified first before doing any trading whatsoever. The exchange platform can pay you in fiat currencies like USD, EUR, RUB, and GBP.

The company charges you a fee for both deposits and withdrawals. It also charges for transactions carried out on the platform. This is known as the maker/taker fees, which currently in keeping with that of other exchanges who tend to do the same.

Naturally the fees for makers are usually lower than that of takers. At the time of writing this review, the breakdown of fees schedule are as follows:

Conclusion on CEX.io Review

CEX.io is one of the more reputable, if strict cryptocurrency exchanges in the world. While it’s very easy to use, offers high security and makes it easy to withdraw your funds, it also has its downsides.

The most prominent of which is the stressful verification process. This alone, is enough for anyone to just jump ship and check out other platforms instead. That’s combined with the lacking customer support and complex fee structure is enough to discourage many.

But, if you stick with the platform and understand it, everything is easy from there onwards. With their top notch security and incredible marketplace performance, CEX.io is one to be taken seriously. The CEX.IO has been designed as a Bitcoin Exchange we can trust as it has a time-proven financial stability that offers its users 99% service availability. Meaning this is a platform you can trusts and trade on.