Upbit

Upbit review introduction

Upbit is a well-known and large crypto exchange with a massive user base in Asia. The exchange is based on South Korea, with branches in several other Southeast Asian countries.

This review focuses on Upbit Singapore, the only internationally-available version of the exchange. In the review we will take a comprehensive look into every aspect of Upbit Singapore’s trading platform. We’ll look at available features, and answer questions about trading fees, funds safety, account security, deposit and withdrawal options, and more.

Upbit Korea vs Upbit Singapore

Upbit is a cryptocurrency exchange established in 2017 in South Korea. After launch, it quickly became the largest South Korean exchange, boasting the biggest trading volume and vast customer base. With over 200 cryptocurrencies and tokens listed, along with more than 300 trading pairs readily available, Upbit Korea offers a comprehensive platform for both seasoned traders and newcomers to the crypto world.

Aside from South Korea, Upbit has a large presence in several other Asian countries, notably in Indonesia, Japan, Thailand, and Singapore. But for anyone located outside of these select few countries, there is little reason to ever use this exchange. Most of the features found in Korean version are unavailable to international users. With few coins and trading pairs, and limited fiat deposits and withdrawals, Upbit is not focused on providing a comprehensive trading experience for users outside these few countries.

This review will focus on the international version of the exchange (Singapore / Upbit Global). This version, available globally, has very limited features. It has only a few basic trading pairs, no fiat deposits or withdrawals, and no derivatives trading.

Upbit pros and cons

Is Upbit good for beginners?

In short, no. Upbit’s international version is not at all beginner friendly. For starters, it does not have any convenient fiat deposits. You will not be able to deposit your local currency through traditional payment methods such as bank transfers or bank cards. Instead, you can only deposit cryptocurrency to Upbit.

Aside from lack of deposit options, Upbit doesn’t truly have other features that would be considered beginner friendly. Doing spot crypto swaps is as simple as on other exchanges. However, there are no quick-converts, recurring buys, demo trading, or other newbie-friendly features to make using the platform easier. Furthermore, the Support Center has very rudimentary guides and tutorials.

How to sign up for Upbit

If you wish to create an account on Upbit, the process will be easy. Simply visit the website, and click the “Sign Up” link in top right menu. You need to make sure you are visiting the Singaporean localized version of Upbit. Indonesian, Thai or Korean versions will not be available in English language, nor to users from other countries.

Upbit Singapore (or Upbit Global) offers services to many international territories and jurisdictions. It is unavailable to users from United States. Identity verification is mandatory, so attempting to use Upbit from United States or other restricted regions is not advisable.

You can click the following links for to quickly scroll back up and see a full list of Upbit countries: Available Countries | Restricted Countries.

The actual account registration process is simple enough. Entering basic email and password and confirming your email address is sufficient, and the entire process is fairly straightforward.

How to deposit to Upbit

You can only deposit cryptocurrency assets to Upbit. The only fiat deposits available are with Singaporean dollars (SGD). There are no other fiat currencies supported, and you will be unable to purchase Bitcoin, Ethereum or other available crypto assets with your local currency. If you wish to buy your first crypto with a bank transfer or credit card, you will need to use a different exchange.

Upbit supports deposits in 40 different crypto assets: BTC, ETH, USDT, ETC, BCH, SNT, STORJ, LTC, XRP, WAVES, BAT, DNT, CVC, RLC, ADA, TRX, ARDR, XLM, UPP, ZIL, MOC, PUNDIX, MED, BSV, ELF, NKN, ANKR, MARO, ORBS, ATOM, EOS, BORA, KLAY, MLK, DKA, LINK, CRV, CTSI, and WAXP.

There are no deposit limits imposed. Daily withdrawal limit starts at 5,000 SGD value for Level 2 KYC, climbing up to 100,000 SGD for Level 3 KYC. Upbit does not charge any deposit fees.

Upbit is a highly regulated exchange, and because of this will restrict deposits from unverified private wallets. In compliance with global anti-money laundering “Travel Rule”, Upbit will only allow deposits from other VASP-regulated exchanges approved by Upbit. These currently include Binance, Bitget, BitMEX, Bybit, Crypto.com, HTX, OKX, OrangeX, StraitsX, and other localized Upbit’s.

Alternatively, you can deposit from MetaMask wallet to Upbit. However, you will need to verify the wallet’s ownership on the exchange’s “Security” settings (or “My Profile” on app).

It’s crucial to either verify your personal wallet, or send assets from another exchange approved by Upbit. Failure to do so will make it difficult to recover your funds. You need to contact support and fill refund forms before your assets can be returned.

How to withdraw from Upbit

Same as deposits, Upbit only allows fiat withdrawals in Singapore Dollars. Withdrawal fee for Singaporean dollars are 5 SGD per transaction.

For crypto assets, all currencies supported by the platform can be withdrawn. Withdrawal fees are different for each individual asset. Here are most popular ones:

• Bitcoin: 0.0008 BTC
• Ethereum: 0.007 ETH
• Ethereum Classic: 0.005 ETC
• Ripple: 0.4 XRP
• USDT: 4 USDT on Ethereum network, free on Tron.

Overall, the withdrawal fees are in line with other crypto exchanges, and Upbit does not charge any extras or premiums compared to alternative trading platforms.

How to trade crypto on Upbit

You can only trade spot market on Upbit. Unlike its localized versions, there is no derivatives trading, no margin, leverage, or futures or options. None of these markets are available, and Upbit will only let you spot trade SGD (Singapore Dollar) trading pairs on very few available crypto assets.

As for the trading process itself, our review team agrees it leaves a lot to be desired. The entire interface feels very outdated, with practically zero customization available. The web trading interface isn’t even responsive, making it very difficult to use on smaller screens or mobile devices. There is no dark color scheme either.

Literally every other exchange we reviewed provides a much better user experience compared to Upbit. We kept checking and hoping for improvements over the course of several months, and not a single change has been done to the interface. For such an established and successful exchange, we found the severe lack of effort to provide a good user experience very disappointing.

Other features

This section is going to be simple. There are none! Upbit Singapore does not have staking, airdrops, launchpools, launchpads, structured financial products, copy trading, bot trading, or any other feature you may be used to using on more advanced crypto trading platforms.

Upbit allows you to deposit and withdraw few dozen crypto assets, spot trade between only a few of them, and that’s all.

Is Upbit a regulated exchange?

Upbit has one thing going for it: this exchange puts regulatory compliance ahead of everything else. As such, it is fully regulated and operating legally with proper licenses in its main markets: South Korea, Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore.

Upbit Singapore, the global version we are reviewing here, is licensed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). Back in January 2024 Upbit obtained the Major Payment Institution (MPI) license in Singapore, which allows it to provide digital payment token services. Prior to obtaining a license, this company been exempted from needing one under the Payment Services Act for Digital Payment Token (DPT) services.

Upbit doesn’t seem to care much about growing its user base outside of the few mentioned countries, therefore it does not hold any other international licenses or certificates. However, it is very compliant with local laws and regulations in its independent legal entities.

Are my assets safe on Upbit?

Some of the regulatory licenses Upbit holds require it to adhere to certain strict asset safety and security norms as well. For example, Monetary Authority of Singapore requires exchanges to hold over 90% of customer assets in cold wallets. Of course, Upbit adheres to this basic but critical asset safeguarding rule. Cold wallets are not connected to any online systems, meaning in the event of a major security breach they will remain safe.

In addition to storing majority of customer assets in cold storage, Upbit Singapore also uses an independent custodian and a regulated service provider to ensure strong cybersecurity protections like multi-factor authentication, secure cold storage, encryption, and strict access control.

To further ensure safety, an external accounting firm regularly audits the custodian to confirm that the assets held exceed the total user deposits.

Lastly, Upbit Singapore undergoes IT security audits as required by MAS’s Technology Risk Management guidelines (PSN05). These steps are all in place to protect against cybersecurity risks.

Account security

User account security options are crucial to avoid phishing attempts and unauthorized logins or withdrawals. Upbit has very rudimentary account security features, with only an email address and password required to log into an account.

There are no 2-factor authentication options available, either through emailed confirmation codes or apps such as Google Authenticator. An email is sent to your registered address after each successful login, so it is critical to keep an eye on your inbox and react promptly to any unauthorized login attempts.

A recent login history is available in the account settings. But, this is merely a log of latest account logins, and will not prevent any unauthorized use.

No advanced account safety features are available, such as withdrawal address whitelists, PIN codes, anti-phishing codes, trading passwords, or other helpful tools.

Is Upbit legit or scam?

On first glance, it’s easy to get the impression that Upbit Singapore is a scam or at least suspicious platform. Very few available features and trading pairs make it seem like an amateur trading platform designed to rope in new investors.

However, Upbit is one of the world’s biggest exchanges, all thanks to its massive user base in Asia. As mentioned, this is a highly regulated and trusted exchange that has been operational since 2017 and has millions of satisfied customers (in Asian countries).

Upbit hasn’t been a victim of any major hacks or thefts, and it is considered safe to hold assets in its wallets. Strict adherence to regulatory requirements also ensures this exchange holds majority of user funds in cold wallets, thus keeping it safe in case of potential security breaches.

Furthermore, Upbit publishes regular Proof of Reserves (PoR) reports, providing additional transparency and peace of mind that user funds are safe. However, the PoR is not available for the international version of the exchange.

FAQ

If you have any more questions about Upbit, do not hesitate to contact our team and we will do our best to answer them.

Best Upbit alternatives

If you need an Upbit alternative, pretty much any exchange reviewed on Cexfinder is a superior choice. There’s always a reason to use some or multiple exchanges we have listed and reviewed, but Upbit may be an exception.

To find the best Upbit alternative, it’s likely best to start with our Country list. Here, you will find exchanges filtered for any country and jurisdiction, providing you with peace of mind that you can legally and safely use a trading platform without worry.

Next, you need to identify which features you require. For this, our filters can come in very handy. Alternatively, you can take a look at our shortlist below to find exchanges we recommend for specific goals:

• Fiat deposits: Binance, Bybit, Gemini, OKX, HTX, Kraken.
• Spot trading: Binance, Bybit, OKX, HTX.
• Futures trading: Bybit, HTX, Gate, KuCoin, OKX.
• Altcoin variety: MEXC, Gate, BitMart, KuCoin, LBank, Bitrue, HTX, Bitget.
• Lowest fees: HTX, OKX, WhiteBIT, XT, CoinW, LBank.
• Staking and airdrops: Gate, Bybit, Bitget, Bitrue, OKX, HTX, KuCoin.
• Safest and regulated: Binance, Gemini, Kraken, Coinbase, Bitfinex.
• Optional KYC: MEXC, BingX, Blofin, LBank, XT, BitMart.

The options listed above should be sufficient to find a great exchange to replace Upbit with, depending on your needs and preferences.

Final score: Is Upbit a good exchange?

Normally we wouldn’t bother, but it was important for us to do a review of Upbit because many crypto users heard of this exchange and are interested in trying it out.

Our team went through all relevant factors of Upbit exchange, and we found very little reason to use it. This is reflected in our final score as well, which is less than stellar:

Features Score: 27 / 100

2.3

Total Rating: Poor

Very few features have made it very difficult to give Upbit a higher score than this.

Our review explained main aspects of Upbit, including the short list of features, ways to deposit and withdraw, trade crypto, and the platform’s safety aspects. In short, we do not see any reason why anyone outside of select Asian countries should use this crypto exchange.

Upbit is not a good trading platform for international users. The only conceivable reason to use this exchange is because of asset safety and diversification across multiple platforms. However, even for this reason there are multiple very safe exchanges which cater to users globally.

In conclusion, you should find an alternative platform and avoid trading on Upbit. Its large user base and good reputation is based on Upbit’s Korean and other localized versions. The international Upbit version available globally is not worth considering.