Bitstamp Review
Why Bitstamp Sucks In 50 Words
Bitstamp’s only major caveat is the lack of a wide range of digital assets. There are simply too few cryptos for such an old and big exchange but don’t get me wrong, you still have tens of cryptos to trade, just not as many as (for example) on Binance. I would still like to see more added soon.
Why Bitstamp Doesn’t Suck In 50 Words
This is one of the oldest crypto exchanges and during all their years in business, they’ve developed a very streamlined and convenient way or buying and selling Bitcoin. If you don’t want to do technical analysis, you can simply buy cryptos from the website, without opening a trading platform. This easy process is used nowadays by quite a few exchanges, but Bitstamp was among the first to introduce it. Of course, they also provide a feature-rich trading platform.
Is Bitstamp A Scam?
No way! All companies from the Bitstamp group are regulated or supervised in some way, and even if this wasn’t the case, we still wouldn’t have any Scam suspicion regarding Bitstamp. They’ve been in business almost since the beginning of the blockchain itself and in all this time, they’ve shown great care for their customers and have always tried to improve.
Back in 2014 and 2015, the exchange suffered cyberattacks, which resulted in 19,000 Bitcoin being stolen. Many of the big exchanges encountered this type of incident during their time in business – of course, that’s a bad thing, and it shows that security is still not as strong as it should be, but the positive thing in all of this is that Bitstamp refunded all of the clients’ losses. So, how can we call them a scam when they actually put their clients’ interests above their own?
Should I Open An Account With Bitstamp?
Bitstamp is the world’s longest-standing crypto exchange, and Europe’s largest one, with its history in business starting way back in 2011. The exchange is operated by Bitstamp Limited, a company registered with the Registrar of Companies for England and Wales under the number 8157033. Payment processing is offered by Bitstamp Europe S.A, which is authorized and regulated as a Virtual Asset Service Provider by the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF). Services in the United States are provided by Bitstamp USA Inc, which has been granted a virtual currency license by the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS).
The exchange tries and succeeds, in our opinion, to satisfy all types of clients by offering them a sophisticated and feature-rich trading platform focused on technical analysis, market depth and different types of orders, but also an easier way to buy/sell crypto right on the website. Basically, if you don’t want to deal with the platform and learn its ins and outs, you can simply go on the website, choose the amount of cryptocurrency you want to buy or sell and click the corresponding button. It doesn’t get any easier than that.
Bitstamp offers two types of accounts: Personal (for retail clients) and Corporate (for institutions). Retail clients are all treated the same, no matter how much they deposit, meaning that Bitstamp doesn’t have a tiered account structure as we are used to seeing with CFD brokers.
Order execution is one of the best in the industry and this is achieved by implementing a state-of-the-art matching engine from Nasdaq. This major infrastructure upgrade brings a level of trading efficiency previously reserved for “mature” traditional markets. Some of the advantages of their engine include improved market depth (which means the price you see is the price you get) and tighter spreads compared to other crypto exchanges.
Education is limited to a few words about the different cryptocurrencies they offer and some tutorials about buying said crypto assets, so it’s safe to say that if you want to learn about blockchain, you should find a website that’s focused on that, because Bitstamp’s main goal is not education.
To conclude, it’s clear that Bitstamp is a trustworthy crypto exchange, and definitely one of the more prominent ones, but they have a limited choice of digital assets. If you can get over this fact, Bitstamp is a top crypto exchange and one that you should definitely consider if you are looking to buy and sell crypto.
Bitstamp Limited has a registered office at 5 New Street Square, EC4A 3TW London, United Kingdom. Bitstamp Europe S.A. lists the address 21-25 Allée Scheffer L-2520 Luxembourg, Luxembourg. Bitstamp USA Inc. is located at 27 Union Square West, Suite 205 New York, NY 10003 United States. The exchange can be reached at phones +44 20 3868 9628, and +352 20 88 10 96 or email [email protected], [email protected], [email protected].
Bitstamp Online Presence And Reputation
The exchange is known for its transparency and as proof of that, they even show pictures of the entire managerial team on the About Us page. If you compare this with the classic “we are the best online platform”, you can clearly see the difference, as most CFD brokers don’t even post their address, let alone information about their management.
As far as their reputation among traders, Bitstamp doesn’t enjoy the best vibe, especially more recently. They are rated 2 stars on Trustpilot, with a lot of users complaining about their accounts being terminated out of the blue and funds “confiscated”, about withdrawals that never arrived, and many more such grievances. Some have also complained about Bitstamp’s KYC process, which is too complicated. Indeed, KYC and AML procedures can be a bit stuffy sometimes, but we have to comply with them. As far as the other complaints go, we didn’t encounter such problems but we cannot overlook the large number of people who did.
Bitstamp Special Features
This is a pretty straightforward exchange, in the sense that it does what it’s supposed to, without too much glitter on the side. You want to buy and sell crypto – you got it. Easy, fast and convenient.
As a special feature, we can mention their Instant Order, which allows buying and selling of crypto assets with just a few clicks, right on the website and without having to access the trading platform. Also, Bitstamp offers the possibility to earn rewards by staking your Ethereum or Algorand (ALGO). More assets are coming soon, according to the website.
Bitstamp Overall Ratings
User Friendliness 17/20
The website is only available in English, which is pretty common among crypto exchanges, but still, more languages wouldn’t hurt. The platform is well designed and with enough features to satisfy technical traders but Bitstamp also offers an Instant Order feature where you simply decide how much to buy or sell and click a single button, which makes it very easy to use. US traders are accepted and a mobile platform is available for both iOS and Android.
Range Of Markets And Volume 16/20
One of the drawbacks of using Bitstamp is the limited variety of digital assets that can be bought and sold: just 61 cryptos. These can be traded against the Euro, British Pound and US Dollar, as well as between themselves, but that’s still a shallow offering for a mainstream cryptocurrency exchange. However, the trading volume is huge, at almost 400 million USD for the last 24 hours (at the time of writing), showing that the limited number of assets is not off-putting for traders.
Fees 16/20
The trading fees are 0.50% for all pairs, (which is a bit on the steep side) if the trading volume is below 10,000 USD for the last 30 days (which I bet will include a lot of people). Between 10K USD and 20K USD, the fee will be 0.25% and the next threshold is 100K USD, where the fee will only drop to 0.24%. There’s a 3.00 EUR fee for SEPA withdrawals (deposits are free), a 5% fee if you purchase cryptocurrency with a credit card, a 0.05% (minimum $7.5) fee for international wire deposits and 0.1% (minimum $25) fee for international wire withdrawals.
Deposits And Withdrawals 17/20
The methods for deposits and withdrawals are credit cards, SEPA transfers, international wire transfers and of course, cryptocurrencies. The fees for fiat transactions are outlined above, and while some may be a bit steep, crypto transactions are much more convenient: deposits are free and withdrawals only incur low fees of 0.0005 BTC or 0.005 ETH (these change depending on crypto asset).
Bitstamp Extras 16/20
The Instant Order, which allows you to buy cryptocurrency with the click of a button is probably the most interesting feature. Ethereum and Algorand (ALGO) staking is possible but it would be nice to see more diversity.
Bitstamp Overall Rating: 82/100