BitBuy Review – Is This Crypto Exchange Legit?

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By Austin DeNoce

Last Updated

Bitbuy-Review

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BitBuy Review

  • BitBuy Exchange
  • BitBuy Trading
  • BitBuy Trading Fees
  • BitBuy Customer Support
4.2

Summary

BitBuy is a registered money services business, Canadian crypto exchange, and advanced crypto trading platform available via desktop or mobile app. This cryptocurrency exchange supports 25 crypto assets, including one stablecoin (USDC). Additionally, BitBuy offers access to over-the-counter trading desk liquidity, a marketplace, and an investment dealer. See if this is a suitable cryptocurrency exchange for you in our BitBuy review.

Pros

  • Appeals to experienced traders and brand new investors
  • 25 supported assets
  • Excellent mobile app
  • BitBuy referral program
  • Registered money service business

Cons

  • High fees
  • Only for Canadians (only supports Canadian dollars)
  • No limit orders in the Express Trade section
  • Only supports crypto trading (no staking, loans, etc.)

BitBuy is a registered money services business, Canadian crypto exchange, and advanced crypto trading platform available via desktop or mobile app.

BitBuy’s goal is to provide Canadian crypto investors and traders (both new and old) convenient and secure access to buy and sell crypto like bitcoin, ethereum, and bitcoin cash.

So, is BitBuy legit? Stick around for this in-depth BitBuy review to learn all about its services and whether a BitBuy account is right for you.

Bitbuy Account Overview

BitBuy Features and Services

Crypto Assets and Exchange

The BitBuy cryptocurrency exchange supports 25 crypto assets, including one stablecoin (USDC).

Bitbuy Crypto Exchange

This is notably more assets than other Canadian rivals like XCoins but still far from matching the likes of Coinbase or Binance, which support dozens and hundreds of crypto assets, respectively.

Bitbuy Crypto Assets

Nevertheless, BitBuy users should be more than pleased with the asset selection.

BitBuy’s basic exchange is under the “Express Trade” tab and aims to provide a simple way to purchase crypto for those unaccustomed to crypto trading. 

In terms of its interface, the Express Trade section has a basic but easy-to-use order panel with plainly displayed buy and sell buttons and a clear dropdown window to select your market.

The Express Trade order panel is extremely user-friendly, but it doesn’t support any advanced functionality, including limit orders.

However, if you fancy yourself a more advanced trader, you can place limit orders and much more in BitBuy’s advanced trading section.

Advanced Trading Platform

BitBuy’s advanced trading section is under the “Pro Trade” tab and provides a very smooth and aesthetic design for active traders.

Bitbuy Advanced Trading

The interface includes tools like market depth, order books, and trade history, and its charts are powered by TradingView.

The overall design is excellent, but the chart is a bit small compared to other platforms. Traders have the option to enter fullscreen, but a customizable layout or more prominent chart would have been preferred.

As alluded to earlier, both limit and market orders are supported. Unfortunately, other order types, such as stop-limits and trailing stop, are not supported.

Notwithstanding those concerns, the BitBuy Pro Trade service is still well-suited for most active traders. It’s far from the best, but it’s certainly well-designed. 

Deposits, Withdrawals, and Trading Fees

BitBuy doesn’t charge anything for deposits and supports Interac e-transfers, wire transfers, and cryptocurrency deposits.

There is, however, a 1.50% withdrawal fee for any wire transfer or Interac e-transfer and various crypto withdrawal fees such as 0.00035 BTC, 0.007 ETH, and 20 USDC.

When it comes to BitBuy’s trading fees, they are certainly on the expensive side charging 1.50% for both maker and taker fees.

These fees apply to all financial transactions, whether executed through the Express Trade or Pro Trade sections.

Trading fees can be lowered as you increase your trading volume, but the next tier up (0.50% maker, 0.75% taker) requires at least $250k volume.

Even with that volume, the BitBuy trading fees are more expensive than Coinbase’s tier 1 fees (0.40% maker, 0.60% taker).

Corporate Solutions

The last feature of the BitBuy platform worth briefly mentioning is its corporate solutions.

Bitbuy Corporate Solutions

The BitBuy corporate solutions include access to over-the-counter trading desk liquidity, a marketplace and investment dealer for a direct customer support line, institutional-grade custody, and a reports analysis center.

If you are part of a Canadian corporation looking to build out its crypto holdings, the BitBuy solutions would be a very useful service to look into.

Bitbuy Holdings Page

How BitBuy Compares to Competitors

Given that BitBuy aims to serve both novice and experienced crypto investors/traders, it seems apt to compare it to platforms with similar goals, such as Coinbase.

Coinbase has more supported markets, lower fees, and a comparable (arguably much better) interface for its entry-level and advanced trading sections.

For those reasons, it’s hard to see why users would choose BitBuy unless they found the BitBuy interface that much more appealing.

However, if you are dead set on a Canadian exchange, the best comparisons will be Xcoins (for newer investors) and NDAX (for traders).

Xcoins has a much better interface than BitBuy, but the fees are somehow even higher.

Xcoins also only supports six cryptocurrencies, and there are no charts or advanced trading tools, so investors will have to weigh what matters most to them.

As for NDAX, its exchange supports about ten more crypto assets, has very low fees (0.20%), and the trading interface is a bit cleaner with a larger chart. 

If your focus is trading, NDAX is likely a better option for Canadians.

That being said, it’s important to underscore that BitBuy is unique as one of the few (perhaps the only) Canadian crypto platform that successfully serves all levels of crypto traders.

Users will likely fall into one camp or the other, meaning that quality won’t necessarily be important.

Still, it’s a quality worth keeping in mind, and each BitBuy service is still a worthy competitor to Xcoin’s and NDAX’s respective counterparts.

Conclusion: BitBuy Review 

After carefully walking through all of its services for this BitBuy review, we believe BitBuy is an excellent platform for both crypto beginners and experienced traders, but it isn’t the best platform for either.

While the Express Trade exchange is easy to use, it is hardly the best design out there, which leaves it the lesser option in the fight for new crypto investors.

BitBuy’s advanced trading functions are also underwhelming, though still admirable. However, no trader would (or should) be willing to pay 1.50% maker and taker fees, given their level of activity.

Having services to adequately serve both ends of the trading spectrum has its advantages, but most people don’t need both services—they need one or the other.

For that reason, we don’t believe BitBuy should be anyone’s top pick unless they genuinely need a platform that appeals to beginners and traders.

Even with that condition met, users will have to prefer a Canadian platform over something like Coinbase, which is better by nearly all metrics.

The BitBuy platform is still great, and Canadians will find it worth exploring, but it seems to fall victim to the adage “Jack of all trades, master of none.” 

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Austin DeNoce

Austin DeNoce is a writer, personal investor, and entrepreneur who is focused on trading and investing education for macro, crypto, equities, derivatives, and foreign exchange traders. He graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara with a bachelor’s in philosophy and carries a deep passion for a first-principles approach to investing and education therein. Austin specializes in topics related to cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology.

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