CoinSmart Review – Is This Cryptocurrency Platform Legit?

About CoinSmart

CoinSmart is a Canadian-based crypto trading platform that allows users to trade and learn about crypto assets with 24/7 client support. At the moment, CoinSmart offers its services in the following countries: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and Turkey, with plans to continue expanding that reach in the future. Note, however, CoinSmart is not available for US residents.

CoinSmart Account Opening

Opening an account with CoinSmart begins with a simple email verification, but they do require you to activate 2FA before logging in and will not let you deposit or trade without verifying your account through mobile verification, identity document upload, and additional personal information. If you have all your documents in order, it shouldn’t take more than five or so minutes. That said, after I created an account and came back to log in, I was prompted with a short survey that wouldn’t let me get past the final question due to some unknown error, which essentially barred me from accessing my account. Hard to say what the problem was, but being locked out of your account because of a survey that won’t process is not something you want from your broker.

Desktop

The CoinSmart desktop interface is extremely well done and clearly outlines all their services. Whoever they hired to do their UI deserves a lot of credit because the design is as aesthetic as it is simple and makes easy work of buying/selling or managing your portfolio. They also have one of the most beautiful wallet interfaces I have seen, with colorful animations outlining all the supported assets and balances. If the most important thing to you is user experience, CoinSmart will certainly impress you.

Mobile App

The CoinSmart mobile app is equally as impressive as their desktop, offering the same beautifully designed user interface. The app lays everything out extremely well and should be a breeze to use. It is easily one of the most aesthetically pleasing apps you will come across, so I encourage anyone interested in CoinSmart to check it out.

CoinSmart Buy/Sell/Trade

CoinSmart supports twelve crypto assets, two of which are stablecoins (USDC and USDT). As of September 16th, however, CoinSmart no longer fully supports USDT. You can still sell your USDT into fiat or withdraw, but you can no longer trade into or buy USDT. For those deeper into the cryptoverse, CoinSmart’s markets will be quite underwhelming, but if you are only interested in the top crypto assets, you should be okay. As for fiat, you can buy or sell with CAD, EUR, and USD.

Advanced Trading

For investors and traders interested in more advanced buying and selling options, you can look to the advanced trading tab. With charts powered by TradingView and a relatively sleek layout, it should prove to be a more than satisfactory trading interface. The markets are very easy to navigate, the queued and filled orders are clearly displayed, and the order book is front and center (though that could be frustrating to those who don’t use it to trade). There aren’t too many bells or whistle to the advanced trading tab, but it has everything you need to trade successfully and should be more than enough for the average trader.

GetSmart

A very useful tool you can only access from the homepage before you are logged in is the GetSmart tab. Here you can find a wide range of educational resources, including articles on smart contracts, consensus algorithms, individual crypto projects, and even how-to guides on how to run your own node. It’s not clear why you can’t access this tab when you are logged in, but it is still an excellent resource if you want to learn about all things crypto.

CS Premium

CS Premium is an OTC service that offers discounted fees, dedicated account representatives, and optimal pricing based on order size/volume. The only catch, however, is it is only available to clients looking to complete orders of $25,000 or more. If that’s you, make sure to check it out and save on those fees.

CoinSmart Fees

If you are Canadian, Bank Wire and Bank Draft deposits are free, but require a $10,000 and $500 minimum deposit, respectively. Interac e-Transfers are free over $2,000, but transfers under $2,000 will incur a 1.5% fee and require a $100 minimum deposit.

If you are European, SEPA, Bank Wire, and Bank Draft deposit fees are all free with 50€, 10,000€, and 500€ minimum deposits, respectively. For all users, credit and debit card deposit fees can be up to 6% and have a $100/100€ minimum. Bearing that in mind, I would aim to avoid depositing with credit or debit.

As for withdrawals, Electronic Funds Transfers and Bank Wires charge a 1% fee with $50/50€ and $10,000/10,000€ minimum withdrawals. If you are withdrawing crypto, examples of some of their fees are 0.00025 fee for BTC, 0.01 fee for ETH, $25 for USDC, and 0.002 for XRP.

Trading fees on CoinSmart are fairly competitive at 0.20% for single trades and 0.30% for double trades. So, if you buy $1,000 worth of BTC, your trading fee will be $2.00. This is notably lower than other beginner-friendly platforms like Coinbase and Gemini.

CoinSmart Security

CoinSmart takes security very seriously, plainly advertising its emphasis on cold storage and 2FA authentication right from the get-go. This emphasis on security is further evidenced by the fact that CoinSmart won’t even let you log in without first adding 2FA. As for the cold storage component of their security, CoinSmart insists it offers all users cold storage for each cryptocurrency listed on the exchange. They don’t advertise what percentage of their assets are cold stored, but they do say ‘most’ are cold stored. Additional security is provided through their comprehensive identity verification process used to protect against fraud by detecting fake addresses and dates of birth using their database. Aside from the slight ambiguity around how much of their assets in custody are cold stored, it would seem anyone’s funds are in good hands with CoinSmart.

Customer Support

CoinSmart has a support tab in the bottom right corner of the page where you can ask a bot simple questions about fees or how to place orders. They do have the GetSmart Hub mentioned above, but it’s more of a learning resource than a help center as its focus is on general crypto material rather than how to use or navigate the broker itself.

Although the support tab and bot they offer can be helpful, it forces you to think of questions rather than browse and doesn’t always return helpful answers. Though, within that same tab, you can choose to get in touch via live chat with a representative if needed. If that doesn’t sound like fun, you can also visit their FAQ page. The page itself is very useful and functions as a help center, but it was rather difficult to find as it was buried in the fine print at the very bottom of the page. If you can find it, I’d encourage you to use it.

CoinSmart Special Offers

CoinSmart, like many platforms, runs a referral program with a sharable link you can pass on to your friends. Both you and every referral that deposits $100 (in CAD or EUR) will receive $15. This is by no means the best referral program out there, but it is free money nonetheless.

Conclusion: CoinSmart Review

Overall, CoinSmart is an excellent broker for anyone in Canada or Europe whose focus is on top-tier crypto assets. With an exceptionally easy-to-use platform and mobile app, reasonable trading fees, and the GetSmart Hub, they are a must-consider choice for beginners or passive investors. While those further down the rabbit hole who find themselves more interested in altcoins will likely not find what they are looking for, CoinSmart will still rival the likes of Coinbase with its simplicity. And though CoinSmart doesn’t seem to be built for traders, it is nice to see their advanced trading options available from the main site, which is not the case with rivals like Coinbase and Gemini and their advanced trading counterparts. Both those rivals, however, do support more assets, so make sure to double-check CoinSmart if you are interested in something more than BTC before committing to it as your broker. That said, what CoinSmart lacks in supported assets, it more than makes up for with its seamless interface and low fees (excluding credit/debit card deposits). So, in summary, while traders will find more value in CoinSmart than altcoin enthusiasts, the platform will be best suited for passive investors who just want the process of buying crypto made incredibly simple via a top-notch user interface.