CEX.IO

CEX.IO Review – Introduction

CEX.IO is one of the best platforms for first time investors. It has high regulatory compliance, providing safe Bitcoin purchases for over a decade. Highly experienced traders may find a lack of certain advanced features on this platform, but those looking for an excellent first-time buying experience and curated selection of altcoins paired with fair trading and deposit fees will find CEX.IO one of the top exchanges in the industry.

This CEX.IO review will explain what makes this exchange good or bad for beginners and advanced traders, and will go in depth about the features, deposit and withdrawals, fees, safety and security, available countries, and other aspects.

Why Use CEX.IO?

CEX.IO is a well-known exchange in the industry. The platform launched all the way back in 2013, and has been providing safe and trusted crypto purchases for a long time. CEX.IO is one of the best beginner-friendly platforms you can use.

Here are some top reasons why you should consider using CEX.IO:

• Variety of deposit methods: ACH, SEPA, Swift and other bank transfers, Mastercard and Visa, Google and Apple Pay, Skrill, Neteller, Epay, MoneyGram, and even PayPal are all available for easy and (mostly) cheap deposits.
• Fiat withdrawals: You can instantly cash out your crypto through the same methods (except Apple or Google Pay).
• Fair fees: Platform doesn’t have cheap or zero fees like some other competitors, but overall fiat conversion fees are fair and reasonable. Crypto trading fees are average.
• Staking and savings: A seamless staking and savings program lets you earn interest by holding crypto assets on the exchange wallet. Returns are competitive and in line with other top staking platforms.
• Reputation and safety: CEX.IO has a stellar reputation and is considered a very safe platform due to long experience and high regulatory compliance.

Is CEX.IO Good For First Time Bitcoin Buyers?

Beginners will find CEX.IO one of the smoothest crypto exchanges for first-time purchases. First time buyers will find the entire process of converting any local currency to crypto very intuitive. Fiat deposits and withdrawals are very easy to complete, and most popular payment methods are accepted without issues.

For users who have additional questions, several hundred articles are available in their Help Center that will explain how to deposit, withdraw, trade and more. Live support is not available, but CEX.IO support staff responds to questions typically within 2-12 hours.

We haven’t noticed any part of the platform confusing or hard to use. In fact, compared to industry giants like Binance or OKX, CEX.IO feels even easier to use.

Biggest downside for first time Bitcoin buyers might be lack of fiat currencies. Only USD, EUR and GBP are currently supported. You can still buy crypto with other local currencies, but additional conversion fees may apply.

Fiat conversion fees

Buying crypto with local fiat currency inevitably involves fees. Overall, CEX.IO has average fiat payment fees compared to biggest competitors. The table below includes deposit and withdrawal fees per different payment method:

More details on deposit and withdrawal limits and fees can be found on CEX.IO website here. Total fees and service charges for card payments will depend on provider used, but this is the case with any exchange.

For those who care about every crypto penny, it’s always best to use bank transfers. CEX.IO has fixed and very cheap fees for bank transfers, and you may just find these to be the cheapest way to buy crypto anywhere.

Alternative payment options such as Skrill or PayPal will have very high associated fees, but you will also find similar costs on any other exchange accepting these payment methods.

Surprisingly, CEX.IO withdrawal fees are equally acceptable. All in all, turns out this exchange is one of the best fiat gateways due to plenty of options and reasonable fees.

Is CEX.IO Good For Crypto Traders?

Planning to game the market? CEX.IO will let you do it through Spot and Margin trading. To answer the question and tell you whether CEX.IO is good for crypto trading, we’ll explain how to trade on the platform, and what kind of fees you can expect.

Spot trading

Familiar interface and sufficient liquidity will ensure you can easily execute basic spot trades and investments in your favorite digital assets. CEX.IO currently has over 150 cryptocurrencies (and nearly 500 trading pairs) listed on spot market. Biggest names such as Ethereum, Solana, Dogecoin, Polkadot, Injective, Link, Rune, Toncoin, UniSwap, XRP, Cardano, Sui and SEI are available. Solid selection of top memecoins such as Shiba Inu, Floki, Pepe, or Bonk is also available.

You won’t find the largest selection of altcoins on CEX.IO, but most popular ones are included and tradeable. Traders (or gamblers) who always need to buy into the latest fad will likely find Gate.io‘s or MEXC‘s selection of over 2,000 altcoins to be better, but very few exchanges can compete with those numbers. Beginner investors or those who are more conservative with their picks will find CEX.IO altcoin selection more than sufficient.

When executing trades, Market, Limit and Stop-limit orders are available. Some traders may notice the lack of advanced order types such as TWAP, Iceberg, OCO, or Grid Bots, but these are typically rarely used by or recommended for beginners.

Margin trading

Margin trading on CEX.IO has up to 10X leverage. Because of the platform’s high regulatory compliance, leveraged trading will not be available in all countries and territories. Even though our main testing account was in a jurisdiction where other exchanges allow leveraged trading, CEX.IO did not. If you intend to use margin trading, it’s important to review the list of margin trading countries on CEX.IO website to ensure it’s available in your jurisdiction.

CEX.IO does not have Futures trading, Options trading, or other markets such as Forex or stock indices. Whether lack of these options is a downside depends on your trading demands.

Trading fees

On Spot trading, maker fees are set to 0.15%, with taker fees at 0.25%. Whether you pay maker or taker depends on your order type, but at most you will pay the 0.25% of transaction amount. Overall, spot taker fees are among the most expensive in the industry, but spot maker fees are only slightly above average.

Let’s quickly compare CEX.IO’s spot trading fees to those of the biggest fiat gateways:

For a more detailed breakdown of trading fees on all exchanges, visit our fee comparison page.

If your 30-day volume reaches over $100,000, your fees will drop to 0.13% and 0.23%, respectively. You can verify the fee rates on CEX.IO website here. High-volume traders can reduce the fees even further, all the way down to 0.01% for taker and 0% for maker.

Unfortunately, CEX.IO doesn’t have a native token or referral code available to reduce fees. However, you can claim $200 fee rebate bonus quite easily. You will receive 50 USDT just by making an account, and another 150 by depositing and trading a mere 20 USDT. This bonus can be used to offset any trading fees, but will only be valid for 14 days. Nevertheless, the signup bonus can provide big savings for those intending to do a larger one-time crypto purchase.

Highlighted CEX.IO Features

CEX.IO isn’t as feature-packed as some other crypto brokers. Beginners won’t find it lacking, because not everyone needs copytrading, Futures, trading bots or NFT marketplaces. But, the platform still has a couple of aspects which deserve special mentions.

• Staking: With staking, you can receive passive income just by holding your crypto on this exchange. Yields appear to be average to high compared to other exchanges. For example, you can get 5% on Solana (SOL), 3% on Polygon (POL), 1.8% on Cardano (ADA), 7% on Ziliqa (ZIL), 12% on Cosmos (ATOM), 10% on Polkadot (DOT), 5% on Avalanche (AVAX). These are some of the most popular assets, but more are available.
• Savings: Flexible savings work very similarly to staking. You can earn a 4% yearly return on your USDT or USDC stablecoin holdings, 0.5% on Bitcoin, 3% on Ethereum (ETH), 2.3% on Dogecoin (DOGE), and 1.5% on Bitcoin Cash. Other assets available include Litecoin, Chainlink, UniSwap, Stellar, XRP, Optimism, and others. Check the Savings feature on CEX.IO to see if your investment can provide you with additional income. Higher yields are available for locked savings, but make sure to visit the platform for up to date rates and returns.
• Decentralized Crypto Swaps: CEX.IO provides instant crypto swaps through Metamask without the need to send assets to centralized or decentralized exchanges first, and without gas fees. Currently, it only supports Ethereum ERC-20 tokens. Users who plan to take self-custody of their crypto assets in decentralized wallets will appreciate this feature.
• University: Platform’s University section is a very comprehensive learning center that will teach you all the basics about owning, buying and trading crypto. The University provides dozens of helpful articles to explain trading and investing, and it’s a great place to start learning.
• Debit Card: CEX.IO crypto debit card is a virtual Mastercard allowing you to use your cryptocurrency seamlessly for payments on merchants. You can use it to spend your crypto balances without having to withdraw money to traditional bank accounts or debit cards first. You can link the card to your Google Pay or Apple Pay accounts, too. Currently, the card is only available in EEA countries. There are no issuance, maintenance or forex exchange fees for the card.

CEX.IO Complaints & Downsides

During our review and usage, we haven’t found anything deal breaking on CEX.IO exchange. The negative aspects are mostly limited to some user experience issues.

• Identity verification: Newly registered users will constantly encounter full-screen popups asking to complete KYC, making it difficult to browse through the platform before completing mandatory identity verification. To complete KYC, the platform will also make you install their mobile app, whether you wish to use it or not.
• No dark color scheme: Spot and Margin trading interface has a dark theme, but the rest of the website does not. Some users don’t care, but for others it may be a nuisance.
• Low trading interface customizability: Spot and margin trading interface does not have nearly as many customization options compared to most exchanges. You will not be able to resize the chart, customize the layout, or remove order book and market trade history.
• Lack of advanced trading features: No trading of Futures, Options, or traditional markets. No copytrading, trading bots, launchpads, launchpools, airdrops, or other trading and earning features.

If you don’t care about any of our listed downsides, you will likely find CEX.IO an excellent trading platform.

Safety – Is CEX.IO Safe To Use Exchange?

Safety of funds is more important than anything else. Fortunately, CEX.IO users will find little to worry about, as this platform is considered reliable, trusted and safe to use.

Regulatory licenses and registrations

In United States, CEX.IO is registered as a MSB (Money Service Business) with the FinCEN (Financial Crimes Enforcement Network). As a Delaware corporation, it also holds MTLs (Money Transfer Licenses) and other finance-related licenses in over 30 states. Internationally, CEX.IO’s Lithuanian arm is also registered as a Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP).

The KYC process will be required on any legally compliant exchange or financial service, especially when converting fiat to crypto. To get rid of account limits and to make sure you can fully use the platform, spending a few minutes to complete KYC will be necessary.

Identity verification (KYC)

As part of the high compliance standards, CEX.IO requires all users to undergo identity verification. Once logged in, using any part of the platform will require the completion of KYC process.

If you have your documents ready, the whole process will really take no more than 15 minutes as advertised. Keep in mind, you will need to install their mobile app to complete identity verification.

Supported countries

As mentioned, CEX.IO services customers from United States, and is one of the few exchanges that does this fully legally compliant. However, because of their high standards, the exchange also restricts services to customers from certain other countries.

Biggest markets where CEX.IO is restricted include Canada, Singapore, Russia, and Japan. Users from any of these restricted countries will need to find alternative exchanges. They recently started operating in United Kingdom again after meeting FCA guidelines. Due to mandatory KYC, using CEX.IO from restricted territories is not possible. Scroll back up to see CEX.IO’s restricted countries.

Asset safety

• According to CEX.IO’s Wallet page, 98% of funds deposited by customers are stored in offline cold wallets, making them inaccessible during potential security breaches and platform hacks.
• CEX.IO does not publish Proof of Reserves (PoR) reports to add confidence into how customer deposits are used. PoR are a basic transparency tool implemented by most of the larger exchanges in the industry, so we’re really hoping they will soon add this feature.
• Bug bounty program is active since November 2024, rewarding users for finding platform vulnerabilities. The program makes it more likely that any exploits will be reported and fixed rather than abused.
• We haven’t found any information on asset insurance funds or independent security audits. However, there are also no reports that CEX.IO was ever hacked or lost customer funds in its long decade of servicing millions of customers.

Account security

• Account security is lacking certain extra features we’ve seen on competitor exchanges. For example, CEX.IO doesn’t have withdrawal whitelists, anti-phishing codes, IP restrictions, trading PINs, or withdrawal passwords.
• However, basic security settings exist. Firstly, CEX.IO will require using a strong login password. Next, 2-factor authentication (2FA) is not mandatory, but supports 2FA codes generated through Authenticator apps, or SMS text messages. Enabling 2FA is highly recommended.
• Changing security settings will also require additional confirmation through codes sent via email.

Is CEX.IO a legit exchange?

• Launched back in 2013.
• Highly regulated, with registrations and licenses in multiple countries, including over 30 U.S. states.
• No known hacks, stolen funds, missing deposits or other issues recorded.
• Platform has mandatory KYC and is compliant with money laundering and other relevant laws and regulations.
• Restricts service to customers from countries where crypto trading is not legal.

Overall, there is zero verifiable evidence that CEX.IO is a scam platform or engaged in any suspicious activities. CEX.IO is not a fake crypto exchange: this is a highly regulated, secure and trusted trading platform used by millions of customers all over the world.

Conclusion – Is CEX.IO a Good Crypto Exchange?

For beginners, CEX.IO is nearly perfect. It has all the options new investors need, including multiple and cheap fiat deposits and withdrawals, with more than acceptable fees.

Advanced day traders and speculators may find some features lacking. Namely, there is no Futures trading for better use of capital through leverage.

Lack of advanced features can also be an upside to some users. Not everyone needs copytrading, launchpools, or trading bots. Beginner investors may find the exchange even simpler to use without these gimmicks that often just clutter the interface.

Overall, CEX.IO is a fantastic fiat gateway for new users, with a solid amount of options and features to make it a reliable and competitive platform. High legal compliance and no shady history make it a safe place to buy and sell crypto without worries.