Coinmama digital currency exchange platform 2021 review

Differing from an exchange, where users sell to each other on a trading platform, a broker like Coinmama serves the purpose of buying and selling crypto directly to and from customers.

The Positives

• There are a large number of globally-recognised payment options, including credit card, debit card, online banking, apple pay, SEPA (EU), Faster Payments (UK) Sofort, Wire Transfer (US) and more.

• Most payment methods on Coinmama allow the user to receive their Bitcoin or other chosen cryptocurrency in around 10 minutes.

• The spending limits are very high when compared to rival platforms, with a limit of $30,000 when paying through your bank account and $15,000 by debit or credit card.

• Users can sell their Bitcoin directly to Coinmama for their set price and receive the funds very quickly to their bank account.

• No market orders, no charts, no fill forms – this is a site that is stripped down to the basics and serves a big issue in the industry: easily and quickly buying crypto with fiat money.

• For users with questions or problems, there is a great live chat feature and an email ticket system.

• All countries, except those under sanction (such as Iran and North Korea), can use the service. Note that only 43 US states have permission to use the service too.

• Coinmama has no custodial wallet service and sends funds to or receives from your third party wallet of choice, so that no downloads or permissions are required. They will not store your payment information.

• Whilst identity verification is required, Coinmama offers a fast-track process so that you can get set up and purchasing in just minutes (this can, however, take up to 6 hours).

• Coinmama claims to accept all currencies, as long as there is a payment method suitable for the user. They remind users that their local bank may charge an additional fee for the transaction.

• Coinmama is registered with FINCEN in the US to increase their reliability and block any fraudulent behaviour.

The Negatives

• As is standard for a service of this kind, KYC checks are in place, reducing user privacy. Users must submit a personal document and do a selfie with their document to confirm it.

• Sales can only be made in EUR and USD.

• Coinmama was hacked in February 2019, losing the data of 450,000 users, however, since no payment information is stored on the site, the hackers got away with only email addresses and passwords.

• Coinmama has some pretty considerable fees, reaching as much as 11% more than the market price depending on the payment method used.

• Ripple and EOS were recently removed, leaving just 7 cryptocurrencies to buy. This isn’t many, but by buying Bitcoin or Ethereum, you can trade for pretty much any other cryptocurrency on an exchange.

• Like many expensive brokerages, it is targeted at first-time buyers who are willing to pay the extortionate fees in order to get hold of some cryptocurrency.

• Depending on how you want to see it, not offering a wallet could be a negative for Coinmama.

Which cryptocurrencies can you find on Coinmama?

At this time, there are only 7 cryptocurrencies. In the past there were more.

• Bitcoin

• Bitcoin Cash

• Ethereum

• Ethereum Classic

• Cardano Litecoin

• Qtum

• Tezos

Some more information on fees

Coinmama can be on the pricey side, but that doesn’t undo their good work. Remember that in the cryptoworld, speed and convenience are costly. Coinmama lists their prices at the market rate plus 2% (known as the spread), which is quite fair, however, there is an additional 3.9% commission on purchases and 0.9% on sales, with a further 5% momentum fee for credit and debit card payments. This means that purchases by debit or credit card can cost almost 11% more than the market price, ouch! 

Other payment methods are cheaper, such as SEPA bank transfer in Europe, which doesn’t have the 5% momentum fee. For swift bank transfers, there is a £20 fee for orders under $1,000, with that fee then being waived for transactions over $1,000, a very savvy move to encourage larger sales.

The final say

Every exchange and broker comes with its ups and downs, but Coinmama has more ups. The possibility of buying cryptocurrency with a credit or debit card straight to a private wallet, in just a few hours, makes the entry point to the cryptoworld very easy for first-timers.

Originally posted on https://decentralised.africa/