Canadian crypto investors have come a long way since the QuadrigaCX shitshow. As of June 02 2020, Canadian firms operating with virtual currencies will be legally recognized as Money Service Businesses. I think this is the right course of action for the Canadian Crypto Market. Also, it is a great time to start crypto investing in Canada. Here's a review of popular Canadian exchanges that offer features like e-Transfer, 2-factor authentication, Bank transfer, and give you a referral bonus when you sign up through the referral link.
Shakepay
Shakepay is very simple-to-use crypto exchange. You can only purchase and trade Bitcoin and Ethereum. If you don't care about altcoins. this is a good place to purchase and trade crypto. It supports both web and mobile applications.
e-Transfer deposit/withdrawal with Shakepay usually takes like 5~10 mins.
Shakepay offers various funding method. For e-Transfer, EFT & Wire transfer, Shakepay don't charge deposit fee from their end. But, your bank will probably charge like $10~$20 for the wire transfer. Interac e-Transfer should be your go-to funding method. There's no bank fee for e-Transfer.
Shakepay says they don't charge fees. But, they control the spread. Their definition of Commission-free is not same as mine, I guess.
They clearly explained that they "take profit from small difference between the price customers can buy crypto and the price they can sell", that looks like commission fee to me. 😋 you should expect about 1.75% fee in trade. This is very reasonable fee compared to deposit/withdraw/trade fee of big exchanges like coinbase, kraken.
This is funding fee rates and trade fee breakdown from Coinbase. If you combine funding fee rates, and Buy/Sell transaction fee of coinbase, it's well over 1.75%. Shakepay offers way better crypto purchase price for Canadians.
Sign up through the link and trade over $100 to get free $10 CAD
Newton
If you are ok with connecting your bank account with crypto exchange, Newton is the best Canadian crypto exchange in terms of ease of use, and competitive crypto pricing. Newton offers more altcoins to trade with. It supports both web and mobile app (Newton's android/iOS app is just mobile version of browser app like chrome . I get chrome password manager popup everytime I open Newton app).
Currently, Newton requires bank connection to add funds. They said they will implement e-Transfer feature in the future. Their market spread is slightly more competitive compared to shakepay.
Sign up through the link and trade over $100 to get free $25.
here's my referral link for newton https://web.newton.co/r/F6ZZL9
PayTrie
PayTrie is Non-Custodial crypto exchange for Canadian. PayTrie offers low trading fee for stablecoins like DAI, USDC, USDT. PayTrie charges a low 1.0% all-in fee. A minimum fee of $2.00 is charged for transactions under $200.00 CAD. Their fee is all inclusive and covers Interac e-Transfer charges, foreign exchange spreads, and network fees!!! It almost sounds too good to be true! 😍
Also, you can buy other cryptocurrency like bitcoin, ETH with PayTrie + Binance/Coinbase Combo. They have step by step guide on their website.
source: PayTrie twitter
PayTire posted a chart that summarizes fee breakdown of differences between multiple exchanges in Canada. I take no credit for this chart. I just wanted to share this information because it's valuable info to Canadian crypto investors.
source: PayTrie twitter
You can clearly see which exchanges are offering their service with fair and reasonable fee. If you are investing small amount of money, PayTrie and Newton offers best bang for the buck. For investment over $2000, Kraken and Newton offers lowest fee. I don't like using Kraken due to their limited deposit method for Canadian.
Here's my referral link for PayTrie
https://paytrie.com/?ref=7FZv1tHZy
Once I purchase ETH, I move all my assets to Argent wallet because they cover the gas fee for ETH/ERC-20 token transaction. They don't cover every transaction tho. It only covers transfer to other wallets and transfers to a handful of decentralized finance products like PoolTogether and Compound. But, it's still better than paying $1~3 gas fee every transaction. For the bitcoin wallet, I'm still testing different options.
Edit: compound gas fee is no longer covered by argent due to insane ETH network congestion. but they still offer free pooltogether and aave gas fee. I know that aave gas fee is subsidized until July 15th, 2020, I contacted argent support. They confirmed it for me. I should make a separate post about argent wallet and DeFi. Stay tuned!
Happy Trading!